Narcotics, weapons smuggling big challenge for Gurdaspur, Batala SSPs in border dist

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, February 18

Recently, BSF jawans posted at the Chauntra border outpost unde the jurisdiction Kalanaur police station heard a humming sound from the other side of the wire fencing on the International Border (IB). It was a Pakistani controlled drone trying to make its way inside Indian territory.

Due to some reason, it had to abort its flight midway and the humming sound soon faded away.

New Gurdaspur SSP Damaya Harish Kumar Omparkash and his Batala counterpart Ashwini Goyal will have to get used to the sound in double-quick time for it is a precursor of things to come in the future.

use of drones by miscreants a headcahe

• The new officers’ task is cut out with drones being their biggest challenge and biggest headache. This is because the security agencies have yet to develop any technology which can counter the challenge of the drones
• The smuggling of heroin through drones has become common. Mobile phones have made it easy for smugglers to bring in dope from across the IB. All the smuggler has to do is to send his location from his mobile phone to his Pakistani handlers. Within an hour, the dope is sent to the designated place through a drone
• Sources reveal that from December 14 to 18 last year, a drone made several attempts to fly in heroin in the jurisdiction of the Kalanaur police station. The police were able to detect just two sorties while the other remained undetected. The cops managed to seize a few kilograms of heroin

Harish has replaced Deepak Hilori who has been shifted out just seven months after he had joined. Goyal has come in place of Satinder Singh who, like Hilori, spent just seven months in the SSP’s chair. Both these transfers have come as a surprise to junior officers.

The new incumbents’ task is cut out with drones being their biggest challenge and biggest headache. This is because the security agencies have yet to develop any technology which can counter the challenge of the drones.

The smuggling of heroin through drones has become common. Mobile phones have made it easy for smugglers to bring in dope from across the IB. All the smuggler has to do is to send his location from his mobile phone to his Pakistani handlers. Within an hour, the dope is sent to the designated place through a drone. Sources reveal that from December 14 to 18 last year, a drone made several attempts to fly in heroin in the jurisdiction of the Kalanaur police station. The police were able to detect just two sorties while the other remained undetected. The cops managed to seize a few kilograms of heroin.

What remains in the realms of speculation is the damage the undetected drone or drones might have done in terms of dropping dope and arms.

A majority of the drone flights have been reported from the Dorangla, Kalanaur and Dera Baba Nanak police stations. A BSF official some time ago had confided that it is possible that the Pakistani agencies might have set up new bases on their side of the IB just across these places.

The security agencies have a tough time whenever a drone flies over Indian territory. A massive search operation is immediately launched and vast tracts of agricultural land are combed just to make sure nothing incriminating has been dropped. Under these circumstances, the resources of the police are stretched to a wire as the cops get engaged in combing operations which take nearly 8 to 14 hours to finish.

On a recent trip to Gurdaspur, the Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit had revealed that talks were on with the Defense Research Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop anti-drone guns. However, BSF officials claim that the trials of some guns developed by Indian agencies have not been that successful.

Catching the drug carriers too will have to be looked into by the new police chiefs. Officials say that it is next to impossible to break the drug supply chain “because it is wrapped in complete anonymity.” The ‘carriers’, or people who ferry dope from one place to the other, follow instructions only from their Pakistani handlers. They hand over the neatly packed packets of heroin to a person whose identity is not even known to them (carriers) and whose face is always covered with a piece of cloth. This person is responsible for the heroin’s onward journey to various parts of India. ‘Carriers’ are normally given Rs 2 to Rs 3 lakh per consignment. The carrier is detached from the person and hence it becomes an insurmountable task to reach the end user.

Officers say their new bosses would do well to regularly raid villages located near the IB because they are known to be inhabited with carriers.

On a conservative estimate, compared to last year, there has been a substantial increase in the drone transgression from the Pakistani side.

The lack of any technology to bring down the flying contraptions means the security agencies are dependent only on troop alertness in detecting “bee like buzzing sounds.”

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