NEW DELHI: Two people, including a former militant, have been arrested and about 39 kg of poppy straw seized as part of an anti-drugs trafficking operation conducted in south Kashmir, the Narcotics Control (NCB) said on Sunday.
The operation was conducted in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag district on July 8-9, the federal anti-narcotics agency said in a statement.
The operation led to the seizure of about 28 kg of poppy straw and the arrest of two people — Shabir, a resident of Nowshera (Anantnag), and Amin, who is a resident of Kanelwan in the same district, it said.
Based on their disclosures during interrogation, about 11 kg more poppy straw was recovered from the premises of Shabir, the agency added.
Shabir had been a member of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and had been arrested in 1996 for terror activities. He was released in 2004, the NCB said.
Amin, it said, had involvement in two drug cases — one registered in Himachal Pradesh in 2017 and the other in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag involving the seizure of 523 kg of poppy straw. He is on bail in both these cases, according to the agency.
It is gathered that the syndicate procures contraband from local poppy cultivators and facilitates its interstate transport via illicit channels, the NCB alleged. (PTI)
