SRINAGAR: National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday arrested four persons from Jammu and Kashmir allegedly involved in smuggling of heroin and other narcotic drugs worth million of rupees from across the Line of Control (LoC).
The money obtained through the sale of the contraband locally and in other parts of the country would be transferred to a major militant outfit to help it in carrying out "terrorist activities" in the Valley, the agency claimed.
A statement issued by the NIA here said that the case of ''narco-terrorism' was registered by it in June last year after the J&K police seized 21 kilograms of heroin and cash amount of Indian Rs.1,35,89,850 from the members of a drug syndicate operating in the Union Territory.
The accused who were formally arrested by the agency in Srinagar have been identified as Altaf Ahmed Shah, Showkat Ahmad Parray, Mudasir Ahmad Dar and Amin Allaie alias Hilal Mir-all residents of Kashmir Valley.
The NIA said that the case was initially registered under an FIR filed at a police station in Handwara area of frontier Kulwara district on June 11, 2020. Giving the details, the agency said that J&K police had during the routine checking of vehicles at a naka (makeshift checkpoint) set up at Kairo Bridge, Handwara found Rs. 20 lakhs and two Kgs of heroin in a Hyundai Creta owned by one Abdul Momin Peer.
Later, the NIA re-registered the case at winter capital Jammu on June 30 last year and took up the investigation. Subsequently, a chargesheet was filed in the case on December 5 against six accused persons in the NIA special court at Jammu.
"Investigation, so far, has revealed that the accused persons were involved in cross-border smuggling of heroin in huge quantities from Pakistan and were supplying the same in J&K and other parts of the country. They were also in regular communication with the operatives of proscribed terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), using encrypted chat platforms", the NIA claimed.
It added, "The proceeds of sale were being used to finance the activities of terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operating in the Kashmir Valley."
The arrested persons were on Monday produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM)'s court in Srinagar which sent them to three days transit remand.
