Drugs, arms worth Rs 100 crore recovered in Poonch; forces foil infiltration attempt [details]

By arresting three local terrorists and recovering a huge consignment of arms and narcotics worth Rs 100 crores from their possession, security forces on Wednesday foiled an infiltration attempt on the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu-based defence spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said that the terrorists, who were also in possession of a 10 kg powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED), were arrested after an exchange of fire near the LoC fence when they were attempting to sneak into this side. An Army personnel and one of the terrorists were injured in the exchange of firing.

Sharing details of the incident the defence spokesman said, "In a joint operation by Indian Army along with JKP, likely 3-4 terrorists were intercepted on Line of Control in Poonch sector while attempting to cross the fence on the night of 30/ 31 May 2023, taking the advantage of bad weather and heavy rains. After tracking the movement at about 0130 hours, a well-sited Indian Army ambush on challenging them was fired upon and in the retaliatory firefight some terrorists have been hit.".

"The area is cordoned and search operation is in progress. Blood trails have been found. Three terrorists with some weapons and war-like stores including one IED and narcotics have been apprehended. One Indian Army soldier was injured in the ensuing firing and has been evacuated. Search operations are in progress", he further said. The injured terrorist has been shifted to a civil hospital under police custody.

Reports said that an infiltration attempt was foiled at Karmara village in the Gulpur sector which is situated on the LoC.

All the arrested terrorists are locals

Police identified the arrested terrorists as Mohammad Farooq (26), who received a bullet injury in his leg, Mohammad Riaz (23), and Mohammad Zubair (22), all residents of the Karmara area of Poonch district.

Questioning of the arrested terrorist was going on and it is believed that they have received the arms and narcotic consignment from across the LoC and were trying to smuggle it into this side when they were intercepted by the troops.

The seizure made from the arrested persons included an AK assault rifle, two pistols, six grenades, a 10-kg IED which was planted inside a pressure cooker, and 20 packets of suspected heroin worth over Rs 100 crore.

The IED was later neutralized by the experts of the bomb disposal squad. The search operation in the area was still going on when the last reports were received.

Heroin and Rs 2 crore cash recovered from same area

In March this year, Jammu and Kashmir Police had recovered seven kilograms of heroin, over Rs 2 crore cash, and a pistol from the house of a notorious drug peddler along the Line of Control (LoC) in the same district.

A huge quantity of heroin and cash was recovered from the house of a notorious drug peddler from Poonch named Rafi Dhana, alias Rafi Lala.

Poonch Police team and a component of the National Crime Agency (NCA) and CRPF searched the house of Rafi. During the search, seven kilograms of heroin, around 2 crores of cash (counting going on), and a pistol with one magazine, 10 rounds along with seven rounds of SLR were recovered.