Narco-terror module case: SIA searches house of key accused in Poonch

STATE TIMES NEWS

Mendhar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Special Investigation Agency (SIA) on Friday searched the house of a key accused in a narco-terror module case in a hamlet near the Line of Control in Poonch district, officials said.
A SIA team had taken accused Mohmmad Iqbal, who was arrested from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district in October, along with it to Karmara, they said.
The case pertains to cross-border smuggling of arms, explosives and narcotics into Poonch, the officials said.
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, Mohmmad 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, they said.
During investigation, it was found that people of other countries were involved in the operations of the narco-terror module, the officials said.
So far, six arrests have been made in the case and forward and backward linkages of the module are being established, they 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 tool his remand on July 1 for questioning over his alleged links across the border.