Narcotics smuggling is rampant in the region with a part of the profit used to fund separatist activities. Networks are complex and span several countries.
According to multiple officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, narcotics smuggling is rampant in the militancy-hit region with a part of the profit channelled to fund separatist activities. They added that the modules were designed in a way that made it difficult for officials to reach the masterminds commanding huge networks and having links across multiple countries.
Security agencies maintain strict vigil to stop drug smuggling into India from Pakistan, but it becomes a challenge for them to keep a close watch round the clock along the entire 740-km LoC owing to the difficult terrain of the area.
Then there are villages that are on the Indian side, but fall outside fences authorities have erected on the border. These villages have iron gates on the Indian side that help security officials monitor entry and exit of visitors. But, from the Pakistan side, there is an easy access to these villages.
The villages of Tadh and Amrohi in Karnah (Kupwara district) and Churunda in Uri (Baramulla) are among such porous villages.
“It is where handlers sitting across cast their net. They lure people from these villages into drug trafficking with huge chunks of money. The possibility of getting rich overnight is too tempting. Their familiarity with the terrain also helps them," said a second police official.
After a courier with a drug consignment enters the Indian side, it is delivered to another courier, then another, and another, until it reaches India’s metropolitan cities.
“It is a world where one courier doesn’t know another courier… Only directions (for identification) are passed by their masters: such as the number of the vehicle, colour of the vehicle, shoe colour, clothes colour etc.,"
Ceasefire or not, this illegal trade of narcotics will continue. It is easy for people sitting in Pakistan to support separatist activities here," said an official from the J&K Police’s Crime Branch.
“A person sitting across has to spend some Rs 20 lakh to purchase one kilogram of heroin from neighbouring Afghanistan. That consignment is worth over Rs 100 crore on this side. In wake of…it becomes easy to send heroin across through smugglers and then channelise the money back through different routes…A part of the earned profit is also used to fan separatist activities," said the official.
