Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 23: The Border Security Force (BSF) today recovered a consignment of heroin, three Pakistani SIM cards and one Nokia mobile telephone from forward village of Korotana Khurd in RS Pura sector. The consignment, which was recovered at the behest of local farmers, appeared to have been thrown or smuggled into this side from across the border.
Official sources said the BSF spotted two packets of heroin and other material lying between the crops in the fields at Korotana Khurd and seized it. The jawans of BSF’s 94 battalion, who rushed to the spot also detained four civilians for questioning but later let them off.
The seizure included two packets of heroin, weighing two kilograms, three Pakistani SIM cards and one Nokia mobile telephone. They were lying between the crops in a field at Korotana Khurd, a village located right on the International Border.
The seized heroin had an international market value of Rs 10 crores.
Sources said the consignment had either been thrown by Pakistani cross-border smugglers or militants from across the International Border or dumped it in the fields before fleeing back to Pakistan during the night as the village falls right on the border. The possibility was that the Pakistani smugglers or the militants had thrown the consignment from their side of the border just they had been doing in the past.
Earlier also, there had been a number of incidents in which the Pakistani smugglers or the militants had thrown narcotics and Pakistani SIM cards inside the Indian territory in RS Pura and Arnia sector. On some occasion, they had also thrown Pakistan currency into this side.
“This could be an act of the militants or the smugglers. Nothing can be ruled out as both of them (militants as well as smugglers) were active on Pakistan side of the International Border and they had been doing such acts for the past quite sometime now,’’ sources said.
The Pakistani SIM cards could also be meant for the militants or the smugglers operating on this side to converse with their mentors across the border. It may be mentioned here that international calls to Pakistan are barred from Jammu and Kashmir. However, Pakistani SIM cards gets signals in the border areas as Pakistan telecom companies have erected mobile towers close to the border.
The BSF has handed over the consignment to Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), sources said.
The BSF detained four persons from whose fields the recoveries were made. They included Des Raj and Shamsher Singh, sons of Lal Chand, Tarsem Kumar son of Sardari Lal and Rakesh Kumar son of Harbans Lal, all residents of Korotana Khurd. However, all of them were released this evening as it was established that they had no role in the consignment.
The BSF and NCB officers were conducting further investigations in the case.
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