Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Jan 22: The huge quantity of narcotics recovered by Jammu and Kashmir Police from a Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) truck last week in Salamabad, Uri in North Kashmir has been found as brown sugar, says Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
The Director Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Inayat Khan, told Excelsior that they have tested all the 12 packets of the narcotics that were handed by police to their team in Salamabad and it was found to be brown sugar.
“We received 12 packs of narcotic substance from Police for testing the narcotic substance and it tested positive for brown sugar. We have sent a report to the Inspector General of Police Kashmir in this regard this evening”, said Khan.
The Director said that the expert team of the department led by Hamid Shiekh and Shakeel Ahmad Wani after the investigation of the seized material found it to be brown sugar.
It may be mentioned here that last Friday police recovered 114 packets of narcotics from a trans-LoC trade truck of PoK at Salamabad that were concealed in Almonds bags.
The driver of the truck, Mohammad Shafiq Awan of PoK, was arrested and truck seized. The narcotic substance was sent for forensic examination. However, police from the beginning was suspecting the recovered narcotic substance was brown sugar.
The trans-Line of Control (LoC) trade and bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and Poonch and Rawlakote remained suspended since the recovery of the narcotics last week.
The standoff followed arrested of driver Mohammad Shafiq Awan week by Police. Pakistani authorities detained 27 trucks and drivers of these vehicles at Chakoti across the LoC since last Friday following recovery of the narcotics.
Forty eight PoK drivers and their trucks are also stranded at Salamabad Trade Facilitation Centre in Uri since the stand-off began last week as Pakistan refused to take back these trucks and drivers unless one of the arrested drivers is released.
On Monday Pakistan suspended bus services between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and Poonch and Rawlakote to press for the release of a Pakistani driver. The trans-LoC bus service was started in April 2005 and Trade in October 2008.
In the meantime, 48 PoK drivers who are stranded at Salamabad Trade Facilitation Centre in Uri near the LoC due to standoff held protests today. They were demanding that the arrested driver be released and they should be allowed to go back.
The protest took place after night long rains in Salamabad and fresh snowfall on hills in Uri that brought down mercury by several notches making these drivers to shiver in cold weather. However, authorities reached the spot and pacified them.
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