JOIN USSmugglers in neighbouring Pakistan are employing new techniques to sneak in drugs and ammunition from across the border into India through the Punjab border. The Border Security Force (BSF) manning the 543-km border with Pakistan in Punjab has foiled recent attempts where drug peddlers used cavities in water campers, agriculture tools, shovels, plastic pipes etc to flush in drugs to this side of the border.
Such instances are now increasingly being reported from the Hussainniwala border area in Ferozpur district of Punjab. Village Hussainiwala located on the banks of the Sutlej river is the site of the national martyrs’ memorial where India’s gallant freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were cremated on March 23, 1931.
There have been instances in the past where drug peddlers from Pakistan even used hollow areas within the vacuum brake cylinders of a goods train from Pakistan to smuggle drugs into India. Plastic pipes stuffed with high-priced heroin have often been lobbed over from across the border fence into Punjab bounds.
The more recent cases detected early this month have kept security agencies on their toes as new ploys are being put to use by smugglers. Drugs have been stuffed in cavities of farm equipment that include shovels and spades, wooden planks that are fitted behind tractors to level fields etc.
Sources said that two persons were recently apprehended in this border area after the BSF noticed the use of a water camper by the farmers in the fields near the border. On being questioned by the forces, the father-son duo emptied the water camper, expressing innocence. The BSF on further investigation found 3kg of high-priced drugs stacked inside the lower base of the camper that was hidden with a false cover.
A few days ago, a BSF patrol team in the area noticed something wrapped in cloth near the border fence. On being challenged, the people on the other side of the fence fled under the cover of darkness. As many as 18 bullet rounds and gun were recovered after the stuff was uncovered.
In the past, heroin was unsuccessfully attempted to be smuggled in cement bags and camouflaged leather items through the goods train.