Pakistani smugglers are increasingly resorting to the use of drones for smuggling illicit drugs, mostly heroin, into India, a close aide of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said.
Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, the Special Assistant on Defence, made these remarks to Hamid Mir, a journalist in Kasur City associated with Geo News (Kasur is located between Punjab’s Khemkaran and Ferozepur districts, and was badly affected by floods earlier).
Mir posted a video of the interview on Twitter on July 17 this year.
Big disclosure by PM’s advisor Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan. Smugglers using drones In the flood affected areas of Kasur near Pakistan-India border to transport Heroin. He demanded a special package for the rehabilitation of the flood victims otherwise victims will join smugglers. pic.twitter.com/HhWNSNuiKp
— Hamid Mir حامد میر (@HamidMirPAK) July 17, 2023
In the interview, Khan admitted that there have been recent instances when as much as 10 kg of heroin has been attached to a drone to be transported illegally into India.
He also demanded that a rehabilitation package for victims of the Pakistan floods, warning that in the absence of a similar measure, such victims could well take up smuggling.
Mir also reported that the residents of the flood-affected Kasur have no signal on their mobiles because of the drone activity in the border region. He added that Khan had claimed that signals were jammed by security agencies in the area to facilitate the movement of drones, in effect, implying that there was some sort of state support to the illegal activity.
Khan is a Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) and serves as the representative of Kasur. He also has a close relationship with the political and military establishments in Pakistan.
Meanwhile in India, under the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, the Punjab Police filed 795 FIRs from July 2022-23 in the Ferozepur district alone.
A senior Border Security Force (BSF) officer has also said that there have been multiple instances of cross-border smuggling, despite New Delhi repeatedly bringing up the issue with Islamabad. Speaking to Indian Express, he also revealed that 260 kg of heroin had already been seized thus far this year, along with 30 Pakistani drones that transported not just drugs, but arms and ammunition.