New Delhi: The Army has recovered currency notes amounting to Rs 2.3 crore, foreign currency totalling $15,000, and seven kilograms of narcotics that sources in the defence establishment say were ‘sent across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector from Pakistan’.
Sources added that a suitcase and three bags containing said contraband, along with a country-made pistol, was recovered from the house of an individual identified as Md. Rafique near Sathra village, approximately 8 km from the LoC. According to reports, the seized contraband is likely heroin.
“Huge quantity of narcotics and cash was recovered from the house of a drug peddler from Poonch,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Jammu, Mukesh Singh was quoted as saying. Singh also explained that the police suspect the role of a narco-terror group operating in the Poonch region which borders the LoC.
This is the latest in a series of busts involving cash and drug consignments being sent across the border from Pakistan into Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir in India.
Between 2019 and 2021, the Border Security Force (BSF) recovered narcotics exceeding 1,227 kg from near the International Border (IB) in Punjab. In 2022, ThePrint had reported that drone incursions from Pakistan into Punjab had nearly doubled.
The recoveries come at a time when Pakistan is struggling with high inflation and a balance of payment crisis. Monthly inflation jumped to 31.6 per cent in February year-on-year, marking the highest levels since 1965.
Pakistan’s external debt has also reached a whopping $130 billion which amounts to nearly 95.39 per cent of its GDP. Reports also suggest that the Pakistan Army is facing shortages in food supplies and difficulties in disbursing salaries to soldiers.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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