Other States - Jammu & Kashmir   

Decline in cross-border narcotics smuggling

By Our Staff Reporter

Jammu May 28. Though Army commanders maintain that there is no decline in infiltration by militants from across the border at the moment, this is not the case with regard to smuggling.

Once notorious for illegal inter-country transaction of goods, mainly narcotics, things have changed along the Indo-Pakistani international border in the recent past. This has been made possible by plugging the main smuggling routes. After the Punjab border was fenced, the smugglers diverted their cross-border activity to the Jammu sector and Rajasthan. Presently, More than 70 km has been fenced in Jammu and operations are continuing.

Talking to The Hindu, the Inspector General of the BSF in Jammu, Dilip Trividi, said: ``The fencing operation has successfully put a halt to the smuggling operations. The main infiltration routes, falling on the Basantar Corridor, where the bulk of the smuggling activities used to take place, have been sealed. ``Everyday, there are efforts to sabotage the fencing operations by Pakistani rangers. They fire on the men involved in the fencing operations''.

The areas in the border belt, such as Galard, Ban Galarad, Nursery and Basantar Corridor in the Samba border belt, fall within the inter-country smuggling route and a strict vigil is kept in these areas throughout the year. The BSF officials feel that following the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the initiatives taken by the Pakistani establishment against the narcotics trade, the smuggling of narcotics from the Pakistani side, especially into J&K and Punjab, has almost come to a halt. Quintals of poppy crops were destroyed after the Talibans were ousted.

Smuggling of other goods though cannot be ruled out, they say. Goods which are sneaked into India include salt (better known as Pakistani salt), electronic goods, cotton, dry fruits and a few other essential commodities. Smuggling in gold too is not uncommon in the belt, though cloth and liquor are the more common items. In the border belt of Jammu, there is a flourishing cluster of liquor distilleries. Their business, it is believed, is mainly across the border, as liquor is banned in Pakistan.

Fencing operations would be completed in another two to three years, Mr. Trividi said. This would act as a permanent barrier for smugglers. A senior police officer admits that smuggling is going on at some points, but it is less compared to the Eighties and Nineties. Border police have strengthened vigil after the Republic day attack in the mid-Nineties, when the former Governor K.V. Krishna Rao, had a narrow escape. The main culprit, Irfan (belonging to the Punjab province of Pakistan), had a nexus with smugglers, according to the authorities.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Sikh families await return of their youths
• Decline in cross-border narcotics smuggling

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu