Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Mar 21: Jammu and Kashmir Police is seeking help from Central agencies to nab international drug baron Harjinder Singh alias Happy Singh of Punjab who is wanted by police for running an international drug trafficking racket through Srinagar-Muzaffarabad trans-Line of Control (LOC) trade route.
The two major consignments of drugs that were recovered from Pakistani trucks in Uri during past one year were meant for Harjinder Singh. He is absconder in the police records of Punjab Police and in Chandigarh where he has shifted from Amritsar and is untraceable.
A team of Jammu and Kashmir Police went twice to Punjab and Chandigarh last month to arrest Singh but couldn’t get him. Last year as well, police teams went to Amritsar twice in search of Singh but failed to nab him.
Last month on February 6, 305 packets of brown sugar were recovered from a Pakistani truck bearing registration number P-9627 during its search at Salamabad Uri in North Kashmir.
Pakistani driver, Syed Inayat Hussain Shah, resident of Kumikote Muzaffarabad from whose truck drugs were recovered was arrested and so were three traders – Zahoor Ahmad Mala, Abdul Majeed Shala and Mohammad Yusuf Dar- for whom the consignment of oranges was meant.
After initial questioning of the three traders it revealed that the drugs were meant for Harjinder Singh and when a police party went to Punjab to look for him they could not trace him out.
Earlier last year in January, Police had seized 114 packets of brown sugar from a truck (RIS-2137) driven by Mohammad Shafiq of Sarwar Muzaffarabad in Salamabad Uri. The 114 kilogrammes brown sugar that was recovered was worth Rs 115 crore.
The inquiry into the seizure of the drug haul found that the consignment was meant for Harjinder Singh. Police believes that Harjinder Singh’s arrest can solve the two cases that has international link.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG), North Kashmir, Gareeb Dass told Excelsior that Harjinder Singh is the kingpin of this drug trafficking gang. “His arrest is vital for breaking this link. Our efforts are on to arrest him. We are seeking help from Central agencies as well”, he said.
Dass said that police is also looking into modus operandi of some of the traders who indulge in such kind of criminal activities. He said that the oranges that came in a Pakistani truck from which brown sugar was recovered last month were to be delivered in Punjab where there is no market for oranges. “The market of oranges is till Jammu only and we got suspicious about this consignment of oranges being sent to Punjab. It was one of the reasons that we became suspicious about this truck”, he added.
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