Monday, December 2, 2013

Drug smuggling: BSF refutes 'porous borders' charge

From TOI
TNN Dec 1, 2013,

JALANDHAR: The Border Security Force has refuted claims that porous borders were channels for smuggling drugs, asserting that the "borders were not porous and were being effectively guarded by the BSF".
While Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, for long, has been saying that the rise in drug menace in the state was because of porous borders with Pakistan, BSF Punjab frontier IG Ajay Kumar Tomar on Saturday categorically said that BSF, despite odds, was always on high alert and had seized over 281 kg heroin in the current year itself.
Tomar, nevertheless, remained non-congruent when asked that in contrast to his claims of "excellent alertness," Badal has been repeatedly blaming the porous borders. Affirming that he would not respond to political statements, he said, "I can assure that borders are not porous and are being effectively guarded." He further said there was no misunderstanding between BSF and the Punjab government and relations between the two were excellent.

"BSF is coordinating with Punjab police and intelligence agencies to check smuggling and anti-national activities along the border," he said. He pointed out that two BSF constables have been suspended after being found conniving with drug peddlers. "We are tough on this issue and ensure that no person crosses the border illegally," he said.

Badal has been blaming cross-border drug smuggling even after the biggest ever haul of locally made synthetic drug ICE recovered by Punjab police with the arrest of Jagdish Singh Bhola, the kingpin and a former policeman.

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