BJP seeks abolition of trans-LoC trade

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 22

After recovery of a huge quantity of narcotics from a truck at the Salamabad Trade Centre at Uri in Baramulla district, the demand for abolishing the much-politicised trans-Line of Control (LoC) trade has gained momentum.

Openly coming out against the cross-LoC trade, the BJP said it had turned into a mode of terror funding and narco-terrorism in the country.

Interestingly, for the PDP, which is running a coalition with the saffron party, the cross-LoC trade is one of the biggest confidence building measure to normalise Indo-Pak relations. Party leadership avails every opportunity to highlight the trade as one of its noticeable achievements since its formation in 1999.

On Friday, the J&K Police had seized 66.5 kg of narcotics, worth crores of rupees, in north Kashmir from a truck from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

“It is high-time the so-called trans-LoC trade centres are shut as these have turned into routes for funding terror and pumping drugs as a part of narco-terrorism,” said J&K BJP spokesman Varinder Gupta. He said the cross-LoC routes should be opened only for divided families and trade must be stopped immediately. He said these centres were being used by anti-national forces to fund terrorism.

The BJP spokesman quoted recent revelations made by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that businessmen engaged in the cross-LoC trade were involved in funding separatists in the Kashmir valley.

In June this year, the NIA claimed that large-scale transfer of funds from Pakistan to India had been taking place through the import of goods, including almonds, through the Trade Facilitation Centres (TFCs) located at Salamabad, Uri, and Chakan Da Bagh in Poonch. These funds were used to foment terrorism and separatist movement in J&K, it said.

In last December, the NIA had registered a case to probe irregularities in the barter trade, carried out by 300 registered traders in J&K. On December 18 and 19, NIA teams along with sleuths of Income Tax Department had conducted raids at TFCs at Chakan Da Bagh and in Uri, and also quizzed officials.