RailEnquiry

Indian security personnel and Customs officials have recovered at least 101 kg of heroin and 500 live cartridges of an unidentified calibre from the Samjhauta Express goods train during a search at the integrated check post (ICP) at Attari along the India-Pakistan border in Amritsar.The heroin was concealed in packets weighing one kg each in a consignment of cement that arrived through a Pakistan Railways’ wagon bearing the number 66938.The drugs and ammunition were recovered when the stocks were being shifted from the wagons of the Pakistan train to those of the Indian Railways for onward journey to Delhi.While the Customs officials are expected to provide the details of the “largest ever” seizure of contraband from the Samjhauta Express later, estimates put the price of the heroin at nearly Rs.500 crore in the international market.According to sources in the border area, such recoveries in the past had irked Indian traders who ultimately refused to accept cement stocks from Pakistan. The Pakistani traders on their part exerted pressure on the Government and Railways authorities to ensure that wagons were properly sealed. It was after major assurances that recurrence would be prevented did the cement trade resume through the land route.Reeling under the impact of widespread drug addiction, the Punjab Government has been urging the Union Government to initiate corrective steps.

Through a memorandum to Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde who inspected the Attari ICP on Sunday, Punjab’s Revenue & Public Relations Minister Bikram Singh Majithia had demanded immediate installation of state-of-the-art equipment to scan the railway wagons and other vehicles arriving from across the border through the land route.

The Punjab Government has also sought to augment other infrastructure and human resource at the ICP to prevent any smuggling.