Drug smugglers held after highway chase

The Pathankot police apprehended armed drug smugglers after a fierce exchange of gunfire on the Pathankot-Jalandhar National Highway (NH-44) on Thursday afternoon. The operation disrupted traffic for hours and left commuters stunned.

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The chase began around 1.30 pm when the teams of Pathankot CIA and the Special Branch, acting on intelligence inputs, identified a vehicle carrying three known drug traffickers, Rajeev Abhi, Dheeraj and Shaavi. Police at a checkpoint attempted to intercept the vehicle, but the smugglers opened fire and fled, prompting a high-speed chase.

At one point, the smugglers drove over a road divider following which they came face to face with the cops, who reportedly had to take cover behind a truck as the gunfire intensified. A civilian even attempted to stop their car but was unsuccessful.

Rajeev Abhi was seriously injured as a bullet had hit him in his left leg during the chase. “He is the mastermind of drug operations in the area,” said SSP Daljinder Singh Dhillon. The smugglers then crossed into Himachal Pradesh and admitted Abhi to a hospital in Indora.

The HP police got a whiff of the smugglers’ intentions and subsequently informed Pathankot police that “they had reached Indora and admitted one of the accused to the hospital.”

By the time Pathankot police reached the hospital, Dheeraj and Shaavi had switched vehicles in a failed attempt to evade capture. However, the chase concluded when their car was stuck in a traffic jam. The police have arrested both Dheeraj and Shaavi. Meanwhile, Rajeev Abhi is undergoing treatment at the Indora hospital.

Senior officials, including SSP Dhillon, later inspected the site where the chase had started and culminated. Rajeev Abhi is an inter-state heroin smuggler and his movements were being closely watched by the police for the last several days.