Punjab: Cocaine seizure case hints at ISI link

Jalandhar, October 11

A common thread among all three arrested so far in connection with the 30 kg cocaine haul is that they hail from Doaba region.

All three, Manjit Singh of Mullanpur Dakha in Ludhiana district, Hunny Basra of Palahi village in Phagwara district and Sarabjit Singh of Ballan village in Jalandhar district, have toured Dubai. Having got some clues in the case, some senior police officials in Punjab, who have been overseeing the operation, said that they were suspecting it to be an ISI-linked case. “The main handler of the case is in Pakistan and some of his links had met the trio arrested in the case in Dubai during their visit there in recent past,” said a senior cop.

The cops added that all three were just conduits. Villagers of Manjit’s village said, “His house has remained locked for the past three years. The family had informed us that they were going abroad and no one had returned in three years. Before they left, Manjit had already got married.”

An elderly man in the village said Manjit’s father Satnam Singh was working as a clerk in sugar mill, but he had left the job. Later, he got booked by the Garhshankar police in an NDPS case and was a PO in the case.