Jammu NCB Re-Arrests Escaped Drug Peddler From Punjab

JAMMU, Sept 10: The Jammu unit of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has re-arrested a drug peddler who escaped from its custody three days ago, in a coordinated operation involving the agency, Jammu and Kashmir Police and Punjab Police.

The accused, Aqib Bashir, a resident of Kakapora in Pulwama district, was arrested from Jalandhar in Punjab, an NCB spokesperson said.

Bashir had escaped from NCB custody at Narwal on the intervening night of September 6-7. The agency had arrested him on September 3 after recovering 522 grams of heroin from a passenger bus in Samba district.

According to the NCB, Bashir fled Jammu and reached Jalandhar via Pathankot. After initially hiding in a forested area near the Narwal fruit mandi, he clean-shaved, changed his clothes and altered his appearance to evade the search teams.

The accused allegedly used his contacts in Jalandhar to secure shelter and avoid detection. Intelligence inputs and field efforts subsequently helped the agencies trace his location, following which he was arrested while preparing to move towards Delhi or another State, the spokesperson said.

The re-arrest came as part of a month-long NCB operation in the Jammu division, which has exposed two separate routes being used by narcotic smugglers to bring heroin into Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan through the Uri sector and indirectly via Punjab.

During four interceptions in the past month, along with a linked recovery in Punjab, the NCB has seized 6.920 kg of heroin and arrested six accused. (Agencies)