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| Cause of Worry: Dealing with crime, some cops shifted to other side to make quick money | | | BHARAT BHUSHAN
JAMMU, Jan 18:The arrest of J&K police cop Zafar Iqbal at Kapurthala in Punjab yesterday has brought into focus i) the fact that state is fast emerging as a transit point for narco-smugglers and ii) the feeling that while dealing with crime, some cops take a chance to cross the line to the other side and join hands with law-breakers to make quick money.
This is a cause of worry for all. Even more worrisome is that the vast drug smuggling network could be overlapping with a wider gang active in smuggling weapons and hawala money into the country. Zafar, Irshad, Kewal Singh and Zorawar Singh were Monday captured by Punjab police at Kapurthala for possessing superfine quality of 1 kg
heroin worth Rs 10 cr in the international black market. The contraband, allegedly purchased by them in the border Poonch town for Rs 4 lakh, was to be sold for Rs 10 lakh to someone at Kapurthala.
It is felt that being a cop in the state traffic police, Zafar had crossed unchecked all police checking points on the 400 km Poonch-Lakhanpur road stretch to enter Punjab in their Rhino jeep (JK02AL/2229).
They had almost reached their destination at the time of their chance arrest by Punjab police in Kanjali village of Kapurthala Monday morning. Zafar, however, is not the first J&K cop who has landed in police dragnet outside the state while smuggling heroin. Senior J&K cadre IPS officer Saji Mohan was probably the first to be held in Mumbai
in January 2009 on drug smuggling charges.
The heroin, allegedly seized from him, had also been smuggled from Poonch.
Police sources said the "cops" and other narco-smugglers in the state seemed to be the part of an international drug smuggling ring spanning Afghanistan, Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir.
Quoting investigation carried out by certain agencies in this regard, sources said links of a well-oiled drug peddling racket in the state had been established with people in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the heroin originates. A PSO (now dead) of another seniormost IPS officer (now IGP) was also arrested by police some time back for allegedly working with
militants and supplying them police AKs.
Another cop was held when Farooq Khan (now DIG) was SSP, Jammu, for causing a blast near GGM science college here. Headconstable Davinder Kumar was arrested by police today for selling police AKs, Insas rifles, pika guns and ammunition to HM
divisional commander Javed Qureshi.
Satish Kumar, Hanga police post incharge in Marmat, Doda, had also allegedly supplied police ammunition to Qureshi. He was apprehended by police on January 2.
On August 30 last, police arrested Mohammad Ramzan of Lahore, Jyoti Sharma (45), son of Dineshwar Sharma of Mokhia in R S Pura, and his brother-in-law Naresh Kumar along with 5 kg heroin from Nizamudin in New Delhi.
Though all of them wanted to make quick money, they ultimately landed in police lockups.
The heroin packets seized from smugglers and Saji had Pakistani markings on them. Sources said the heroin packets seized from Iqbal and three others at Kapurthala too bore similar markings. Astonishingly, the 900 gms brown sugar seized from four persons,
including Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) teacher Sanjay Kumar and R&B department employee Rakesh, at Kishtwar on August 29 last, was also Pak-made.
All these seizures have common markings and all are linked to J&K. All these consignments originated from Afghanistan and brought to India from Pakistan via Jammu and Kashmir borders by the infiltrating groups of militants and border-crossers.
Heroin worth Rs 70 lakh was also seized by police from a militant hideout in Doda last year. The packet, in which it was, too had a Pak marking on it. As contraband of such a whopping cost could not be given to militants here for their personal use by their Pakistani handlers,
it was to be sold to smugglers at some opportune moment, the sources felt.
Quoting interrogation reports of some arrested militants, sources said the money received by selling heroin was being used to sustain militancy in the state.
"Narco-terrorism seems to be taking its roots in the state," sources said and added, "It can bring a dangerous turn in the two-decade long militant history of the state."
Counter-intelligence agencies feel that militants active on the J&K soil, have been receiving heroin from Pakistan through border-crossers and infiltrators. These consignments were then sold to smugglers in J&K and the proceeds, thus collected, were used to
fund militancy, the sources added.
After Saji, traffic cop Iqbal's arrest with heroin had turned into a major embarrasment to the state police establishment. Saji was said to have named 27 more police officers who were
involved with him in smuggling. They were still under the scanner of central agencies. Sources said there was a need to weed out the black sheep from police force and post officers of proven track record in the remote militancy affected areas of the state.
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