6 hiding in Gulf, Pak asked to appear
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 10: The Special Investigation Agency (SIA) today searched the house of a key accused in a narco-terror module case at village Karmara located near the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district and recovered mobile telephones and some other items.
House of Mohammad Iqbal at Karmara was searched by the SIA team for mobile telephones and other evidences in narco-terror module case. Iqbal was arrested last month from Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh by the SIA team where he was putting up after narco-terror finance case was unearthed.
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The SIA team also took Mohammad Iqbal along with it to his house at Karmara to identify mobile telephone, other evidences and location of the LoC from where arms, ammunition, explosives and narcotics were smuggled from Pakistan, the officials said.
The case pertains to cross-border smuggling of arms, explosives and narcotics into Poonch.
Three accomplices of Iqbal were caught with a huge cache of arms, explosives and narcotics near the border fence in Poonch’s Karmara area on the intervening night of May 30 and 31, they said. Iqbal was at large since then.
He had fled from the area, and using technical surveillance as well as intelligence inputs, it was found that he was hiding in Mandi district, the officials said and added that he was arrested by SIA in October.
The handler of the module, Mohammad Javed, who was also absconding, was arrested on August 19 by the SIA in an operation in Delhi. This further led to the arrest of another accused, Liyaqat, on August 25 from Poonch.
During investigation, it was found that people of other countries were involved in the operations of the narco-terror module.
So far, six arrests have been made in the case and forward and backward linkages of the module are being established.
Six more persons are at large in the case. Three of them are reportedly operating from Gulf nations and three in Pakistan. The SIA through proper channels have asked them to appear before it for questioning failing which their properties will be liable for attachment.
“The Union Ministries of Home and External Affairs have also written letters to concerned authorities for deportation of six narco-terror accused as they are wanted in the case by the SIA,” the officials said.
Further SIA investigation into aspects of cross-border operations of the module, which smuggled arms, explosives and narcotics, is underway, the officials said.
In May, Mohd Farooq (26), Mohd Riaz (23) and Mohd Zubair (22) were arrested and an AK assault rifle, two pistols, six grenades, a 10-kg IED and 20 packets of suspected heroin, which they were trying to smuggle into the country, were seized.
The accused persons were intercepted by Army personnel and there was an exchange of fire between them, in which a soldier and a terrorist had suffered injuries.
The SIA had also conducted raids at several places in Poonch for three consecutive days from July 26 to 28, following the recovery of seven kg of heroin, more than Rs 2 crore cash and a pistol along with some ammunition from the house of a drug smuggler Rafiq Lala in Danna Doyiyan area of Sathra on March 3.
Lala was arrested under the Public Safety Act (PSA). However, the SIA took his remand on July 1 for questioning over his alleged links across the border.
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