Early Monday morning, a boat with five Pakistani nationals carrying 35 kg of narcotics (Heroin) were apprehended by ICG and Gujarat ATS in a joint OP. It has been reported that in past two years antinational elements involved in narcotics smuggling have attempted to smuggle contraband drug, Heroin, through Gujarat coastline.
As a part of their policing tasks, Gujarat Police and Indian Coast Guard always strive to thwart off any such attempts and have conducted various operations to nip the menace in the bud.
As a step to execute Monday’s operation, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) Gujarat relied on a credible intelligence input that they had received about a consignment of the narcotic drug, Heroin, going to be smuggled in Gujarat through Coast.
The information further revealed that the consignment is being sent on the Pakistani fishing boat named, ‘JamJam’ from Pakistan. ATS Officers approached Indian Coast Guard and a joint operation was launched to apprehend the smugglers and seize the contraband.
A team of ATS and ICG jointly embarked on the operation with Indian Coast Guard Fast Interceptor Boats (IBs) at Jakhau, Kutch. Commandos of Marine Task Force were stationed in boats in Indian waters to help in apprehending the smugglers.
A continuous search operation was undertaken near the suspected location point, located North West of Jakhau, which was indicated in the information available with ATS Gujarat. A suspicious Pakistani boat was identified at the said location in Indian waters.
ICG IBs stealthily started tracking the boat and at the opportune moment, officers and personnel of ICG IBs along with ATS Officers successfully boarded the suspicious boat. The search of the suspicious boat revealed 35 packets of contraband heroin on Pakistani boat JamJam.
The approximate weight of confiscated contraband is 35 kg valuing Rs 175 crore (approx) in the international market. The interrogation of the apprehended accused persons is in progress jointly by all the agencies.
Highlights
The details of the 5 Pakistani nationals apprehended from the Pakistani boat are as follows:
(a) Anees Isa Bhatti, age 30 years, r/o Baba Zajeera, Karachi, Pakistan
(b) Ismail Mohammed Kachchi, , age 50 years, r/o Kemadi, Beet Zajeera, Karachi, Pakistan
(c) Ashhraf Usman Kutchhi, age 42 years, r/o Kemadi, Beet Zajeera, Karachi, Pakistan
(d) Kareem Abdulla Kutchhi, age 37 years, r/o Beet Zajeera, Karachi, Pakistan
(e) Abubaqar Ashraf Sumra, age 55 years, r/o Beet Zajeera, Karachi, Pakistan
(The writer is a Delhi-based independent contributor to print and online publications)