J&K Police, along with the Indian Army, have arrested four smugglers involved in running the module

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday claimed to have busted an inter-state narco terror smuggling syndicate originating from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).

Kupwara Police, along with the Indian Army, have arrested four smugglers involved in running the module, J&K Police said.

Acting on a tip-off that a Punjab-based narco smuggler has arrived in the Kupwara district at a pre-decided location to take a consignment of narcotics, a joint search operation by Kupwara Police along with a local army unit was launched in the Zurhama area of PS Trehgam, a police spokesperson said.

During the operation, four persons – Yousuf Bokra son of Suba Bokra, Showkat Ahmad Khatana, Maroof Ahmad Mir and Laba Masih – were arrested, when they were in the process of exchanging smuggled narcotics and cash among themselves.

During the preliminary investigations, it transpired that the narcotic consignment had been sent by two PoJK-based terrorist handlers of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), namely Manzoor Ahmad Mir and Asad Mir, who exfiltrated to PoJK in the early 1990s to join terrorist ranks.

Both Manzoor and Asad, over a period of time, have become terrorist handlers of LeT, mainly acting as launching commanders besides pushing narcotics and weapons to sustain terrorist activities in the UT of J&K.

So far, eight packets of narcotics (heroin-like substances) weighing about eight kilograms along with ₹5 lakhs in Indian currency notes have been recovered from the possession of the arrested persons.

A case under relevant sections of the NDPS Act and UA(P) Act stands registered in Police Station Trehgam. As the investigation is at its initial stage, more arrests and recoveries can’t be ruled out, police sources said.