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Experts believe that pushing drugs and weapons through drones is part of Pakistan’s strategy to aide and abate terrorism in Punjab.
NEW DELHI: In a first such public admission, a key associate of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistani smugglers have been sending drugs across the border into India’s Punjab through drones.
Malik Mohd Ahmad Khan, the special assistant on defence to PM Sharif, admitted that Pakistan government and security forces are well-aware of the illegal activity, in an interview with senior Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir in Kasur city, which shares a border with Indian Punjab.
Khan, also a Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) from Kasur, also said that Pakistan receives liquor– a banned commodity in Pakistan – through smuggling routes in border areas from Indian smugglers.
In a video shared on July 17, Mir questions Khan about cross-border smuggling of narcotics in Kasur, to which Khan answers in affirmation. “Yes, and it (smuggling) is very scary,” Khan said. “Recently there have been two incidents where 10 kg of heroin was tied to each drone and thrown across. Agencies are trying to stop this.”
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Kasur, located close to Indian Punjab’s Khemkaran and Ferozepur, has witnessed a surge in cross-border smuggling activities.
According to Punjab Police data, 795 FIRs were registered under the NDPS Act between July 2022 and July 2023 in Ferozepur district alone, with most of the drugs seized from areas bordering Pakistan.
This year alone, security forces have recovered 260 kg of heroin, 19 arms, 30 magazines, 470 rounds of ammunition, and 30 Pakistani drones from Punjab’s border regions, as per reports.
The smuggling of heroin and other high-value contrabands continues in the border area of Punjab despite India raising the issue with Pakistani authorities on multiple occasions.
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The Pakistani official’s statement comes after protests in his constituency Kasur over unavailability of mobile signals, a problem Khan attributed to security agencies using jammers due to “cross-border drone movement”.
The issue of drug smuggling via drones remains a significant concern for both India and Pakistan, and authorities from both sides continue their efforts to combat this illicit activity.
Not only narcotics, Indian security forces often recover weapons delivered by drones in the border regions of Punjab.
Experts believe that pushing contraband and weapons through drones is part of Pakistan’s policy to support the network of Khalistani terrorists in Punjab in order to rejuvenate insurgency in the border state.
