Drugs from Pakistan smuggled into India under garb of importing rock salt granules

New Delhi, Oct 21: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its chargesheet filed in the narco terror case has said that the accused persons received at least six consignments of heroin through the Attari Indo-Pakistan border.

The NIA said that the consignments were received under the garb of importing rock salt granules from Pakistan. Of these, money proceeds of five consignments were partly sent back to Pakistan through hawala operators, the NIA also said.

A substantial portion was also channelised to the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists in Kashmir through a network of Over Ground Workers. In July 2019, the 6th consignment of around 532 kilograms of heroin was seized at the Attari border and a separate case was registered.

The NIA has charged 10 persons including Riyaz Ahmed Naikoo, who was killed in an encounter. 7 persons have been arrested in this case, while two others are absconding and one of them is in Pakistan.

During investigation by NIA, it emerged that accused Hilal, who had come to Amritsar to collect the amount of Rs 29 Lacs, was a member of proscribed terrorist organisation Hizbul and a close associate of Riyaz Ahmed Naikoo, the then HM commander of Kashmir Valley. This led to busting of a major Narco-terror module involved in smuggling and selling of Heroin in India and channelizing of drug-proceeds to Pakistan through hawala and to the HM terrorists based in J&K.

During investigation, NIA carried out searches at 15 locations belonging to the suspects and accused in Punjab, Haryana and J&K. So far, INR 98.5 lakh, 8 vehicles and 3 Kgs of heroin have been seized from the accused and investments worth many crores have been identified. During searches, incriminating documents related to benami properties and digital gadgets including mobile phones, pen drives and laptops were seized and forensically examined. Many incriminating chats between accused persons have been recovered from the seized digital devices.