29 nabbed, over 6-kg heroin, 1-kg opium seized in CASO

With the Punjab Government adamant on eradicating the scourge of drugs from the state within three months, the Punjab Police on Saturday carried out cordon and search operations (CASO) at hotspots in areas under the Amritsar city police commissionerate and the Amritsar rural police belt.

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The crackdown yielded good results and the police teams made huge recoveries of contraband during the operation.

While the city police claimed to have arrested 9 persons, seized over 5 kg of heroin and 1 kg of opium in six separate cases, the Amritsar rural police confiscated 1.21 kg of heroin, 1 kg of ICE (Crystal methamphetamine), Rs 1.43 lakh of drug money and 600 sedative pills. The Rural police arrested 20 drug peddlers and registered 14 FIRs in this regard.

Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar supervised the CASO in Amritsar city. Around 800 cops led by senior police officials, including ADCPs, ACPs, SHOs and SWAT teams conducted CASO in five subdivisions in three zones of the city. Among the localities where raids were conducted included Maqboolpura, Mohkampura, Gate Hakima, Fateh Singh Colonym Sultanwind village, Anngarh, Housing Board Colony at Ranjit Avenue, Faizpura, Navi Abadi, Mustafabad, Kapatgarh, Kale Ghanupur, Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar flats, Guru Ki Wadali, Bharariwal, Gujjarpura and the bus stand, etc. The police teams checked vehicles and ascertained their ownerships and searched the houses of drug peddlers and history-sheeters who came out of jail on bail.

Police officials interacted with respectable people of different areas and appealed to them to share information about black sheeps in their localities. Bhullar said people can share information about drug peddlers 24X7 at WhastApp number 77101-04818.

Additional Director General of Police MF Farooqui supervised the search operations in the rural belt wherein over 500 cops were led by SSP (Amritsar rural) Maninder Singh, SPs Harinder Singh Gill and Jagdish Bishnoi and 8 DSPs searched 70 drug traffickers at various locations.

Cordon and search operations were conducted at Sheikhpura Mohalla and Manjhpur village in Jandiala Guru, Mehlawala in Jhander, Meerakot Indra Colony at Kamboh, Mata Rani Mohalla in Baba Bakala, Naagkalan in Majitha and Chogwan in Lopoke.

Speaking on the occasion, the ADGP said the Punjab Police have made a proper strategy to end the drug menace from Punjab. He said the government would not only work on smashing the supply lines but also diminish the demand by spreading awareness and getting the drug addicts detoxified, treated and rehabilitated.

Meanwhile, Punjab Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO said the Punjab Government was committed to getting the state rid of the drug menace by launching ‘war on drugs’. He warned the drug traffickers to leave the state or mend their ways by shunning drug peddling.