SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Punjab: Narco-terrorist Trap
On September 18, 2024, the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Punjab Police recovered 10 kilograms of heroin in two different operations conducted in Kamaske and Manj villages in the Amritsar District of Punjab. The accused were linked to Pakistan-based smugglers and drones had been used to smuggle drugs from Pakistan.
On September 16, 2024, two packets of heroin weighing 1.146 kilograms were recovered by the BSF during a search operation near Naushera Dhalla village in Tarn Taran District. The packets were wrapped in yellow adhesive tape secured with black tape, and each packet also had an improvised iron ring and two illuminating sticks attached.
On the same day, during a search operation, BSF troops arrested two narcotics smugglers attempting to retrieve a heroin consignment dropped by a Pakistani drone and recovered two packets of heroin weighing one kilogram each near Qadar Bax in Fazilka District.
On September 13, 2024, BSF troops recovered one drone (quadcopter) along with a large packet of heroin (gross weight 6.23 kilograms) from an agricultural field in Gilpan village in the Tarn Taran District.
On the same day, in a search operation, the BSF troops recovered a packet containing 581 grams of heroin from a house in Dal village, Tarn Taran District. The drug consignment was wrapped in yellow adhesive tape. An improvised loop of copper wire was also found attached to the packet.
The challenges arising from the interconnected issues of drug trafficking, international organized crime, and terrorism represent significant concerns for India, particularly in its border states, with Punjab and the northeastern regions being the most affected. Punjab’s border has recorded major instances of composite seizures by both state and central agencies, including drugs, Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN), and arms and ammunition. These seizures include substantial quantities of heroin, opium, charas, and other narcotics, along with various weapons.
According to State Police disclosures on September 17, 2024, 2,546 kilograms of Heroin, 2,457 kilograms of opium, 1,156 quintals of poppy husk, and 42.9 million tablets/capsules/injections/vials of pharmaceutical opioids, were seized and 39,840 traffickers arrested, over the preceding two-and-a-half years. The Police also recovered INR 308.3 million of drug money from the possession of the arrested traffickers. This data excludes seizures made by the Border Security Force and the Narcotics Control Board.
Drugs seized by the BSF from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023 as reported by BSF included:
IBSF’s SEIZURE OF DRUGS (IN KGS) ON INDIA-PAKISTAN BORDER IN PUNJAB W.E.F JANUARY 01, 2020 TO JUNE 30, 2023
Source: BSF | Posted on August 9, 2023 by PIB Delhi
Significantly, the seized drugs are handed over by the BSF to State Police/Narcotics Control Bureau/other Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (DLEAs) for further investigation and disposal under relevant provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 (as amended).
Meanwhile, as per latest data published by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2022, details of drug seized in the State of Punjab during 2020-2022 reflect a rising trend.
Drug-wise Seizures under NDPS Act in Punjab
Source: Crime in India, NCRB, 2022 | Posted On: July 31, 2024 by PIB Delhi
These seizures, of course, represent nothing more that the tip of the iceberg, between 5 and 10 per cent of the actual drugs in circulation, according to enforcement agencies. Several Police personnel have also been found to be entangled with drug peddlers. As a result of this nexus, many arrested and accused traffickers are let off the hook, as their investigations are deliberately botched, or because complaints against them are ignored for years at end.
According to a June 21, 2024, report, taking note of this nexus, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann ordered the transfer of at least 10,000 Police personnel in an unprecedented move to crack down on the drug menace in the state. Mann stating that the move was aimed at checking the smuggling of drugs in the state, Mann disclosed that he had received reports that Police officers at the lower levels were involved with drug peddlers. He stated,
Many of the Moharrir Head Constables (MHCs), station house officers (SHO), and constables have been stationed at the same police station for many years and have formed a nexus with the drug smugglers there. They manipulate the procedures to save the accused. I have asked the Director General of Police (DGP) to immediately order mass transfers.
Narcotics trafficking in Punjab is intimately linked to terrorist groups located across the border, in Pakistan. Investigation of cases involving the smuggling of arms and drugs indicate a clear unity of purpose between drug smugglers, gangsters, on the one hand, and both Khalistani and Islamist terrorists, on the other, operating under the direction of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). On February 13, 2020, Dinkar Gupta, the then Director General of Police (DGP) in Punjab, noted,
There have been individuals based in Pakistan and Europe, including Germany, who are involved in sending these consignments. Additionally, jihadi outfits collaborate with Khalistani separatists based in Pakistan. It is these jihadi groups that have shared drone technology with Khalistani organizations, and our understanding is that groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed possess a substantial inventory of these drones, as indicated by the serial numbers on their batteries.
Recent arrests of several retail drug smugglers connected to gangs led by Arshdeep Singh aka Arsh Dalla, Satinderjeet Singh aka Goldy Brar, and Arsh Panesar – who operate from abroad – have also uncovered a trend that new criminal gang members in the drug trade are being turned towards terrorist activities. The substantial profits generated from drug sales are being used to recruit unemployed youth for purposes of extortion and ‘targeted’ killings in India, especially in Punjab, at the behest of Khalistanis based abroad.
Significantly, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is leading the investigation into the targeted killing on April 13, 2024, of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Vikas Prabhakar aka Vikas Bagga, in Nangal town, Rupnagar district, Punjab, has disclosed that the assassination was orchestrated by masterminds based in Pakistan who operate through terrorist networks in Portugal, Germany, and Dubai. The NIA further revealed that the individuals arrested in connection with the murder were unemployed and were enticed by financial incentives to act as foot soldiers for a terrorist module supported by a Pakistan-based organization, although the NIA refrained from identifying the terrorist group.
Further, in August 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches as part of a money-laundering investigation into Jasmeet Hakimzada, an international drug smuggler linked to the banned Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). Searches took place in Delhi, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Mumbai, Solapur, and Indore. Hakimzada is accused of operating a global narco-terrorist network that involves drug trafficking and money laundering across multiple countries. He reportedly involves his parents and various front companies in India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in his activities.
Taking further action against the rising menace of narco-terror, on April 8, 2024, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested one person identified as Harwinder Singh alias Soshi Pannu in connection with the 2022 Attari drug seizure case from Tarn Taran District. The case relates to a major conspiracy hatched by the international drug cartel to circulate drugs in India through various distributors and channel the proceeds to foreign-based masterminds. NIA investigations revealed that Harwinder Singh had distributed drugs, handled cash, and laundered drug proceeds through banking and hawala channels. Earlier, the case came to light after the recovery of, totalling 102.78 kilograms of heroin valued at approximately 700 billion in April 2022 by Indian Customs. Additionally, the drug concealed in a consignment of liquorice roots (Mulethi) arrived in India from Afghanistan through Integrated Check Post (ICP) Attari in Amritsar.
According to a July 10, 2024, report, this year, to secure the borders and combat cross-border threats the BSF in the ongoing fight against drug trafficking in Punjab recovered around 145 kilograms of heroin and 15 kilograms of opium, including shipments transported by drones. The most frequently seized drones in Punjab are the Chinese-made DJI Mavic-3 Classic, often carrying small drug payloads along with automatic pistols and a few rounds of ammunition. Moreover, the Border authorities have confiscated 18 firearms, 24 magazines, and 313 rounds of ammunition of various calibres this year so far. Additionally, BSF operations have also resulted in substantial seizures of drugs such as ICE and tramadol hydrochloride tablets. Around 21,473 tablets of Tramadol and one kilogram of ICE have been recovered, alongside 111 litres of locally produced illicit liquor from border areas this year.
Seizure of drugs in Punjab by all Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (DLEAs) in the Year 2020- 2023 (In Kg/No./Litre/Blots/Bottles) *
Meanwhile, the BSF has intercepted 125 drones in 2024, so far, (data till July 9) along Punjab’s border with Pakistan, a significant increase from 22 drones intercepted in 2022 and 107 in 2023. According to a BSF report, this surge reflects a growing trend of drones transporting drugs, weapons, ammunition, and counterfeit currency from Pakistan into India. Most interceptions occur in border districts such as Fazilka, Ferozepur, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, and Pathankot, with Tarn Taran and Amritsar yielding the highest recoveries. Facing escalating challenges from cross-border drones that are fuelling drug trafficking and arms smuggling, the BSF has called for the deployment of an additional battalion to strengthen its operations along the Punjab stretch of the India-Pakistan international border.
According to an August 26, 2024, report, the BSF has approximately 20 battalions stationed along the extensive 547-kilometre-long border, with 18 actively deployed at various points along the front. The remaining two battalions are assigned to critical security tasks at the Attari Integrated Check Post in Amritsar and the Kartarpur Corridor in Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur. The Force’s current focus is on addressing the persistent drone menace, which began to intensify around 2019-20, particularly affecting the border districts of Amritsar and Tarn Taran. According to a senior BSF officer, the request for an additional battalion is currently under “active consideration” by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA). This additional battalion aims to enhance the BSF’s ability to secure the border more effectively and to bolster surveillance and response capabilities against the drone threats and associated smuggling operations.
To combat drug abuse in Punjab, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE), B.L. Verma, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament) on August 6, 2024, stated that his Ministry was implementing the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR), under which financial assistance is provided to ‘State Governments and Union Territory (UT) Administrations for a range of palliative programs.
Several steps have also been taken by the central government to check the smuggling of illicit narcotics into Punjab, including the setting up of the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) under a Special DGP in the state, a Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) under the chairmanship of the Director General, NCB, to monitor investigations of important and significant seizures, a task force on Darknet and Crypto-Currency under the Multi Agency Centre (MAC) mechanism to focus on monitoring all platforms facilitating Narco-trafficking, sharing of inputs on drug trafficking amongst Agencies/MAC members, interception of drug networks, continuous capturing of trends, modus operandi & nodes, with regular database updates and review of related rules and laws.
Despite years of capacity building and strengthening of counter-narcotics initiatives, the volumes of narcotics entering the state continue to grow, and the linkages between terrorists and gangsters are becoming deeper and more complex. Historically, and across the globe, organised crime tends to be collusive, and there is urgent need to address the challenge of those who are undermining India’s capabilities to fight the drugs-gangster-terrorist menace from within.
Simmering Borders
On September 19, 2024, two Pakistani soldiers were killed while another soldier sustained injuries at the Ghulam Khan Border terminal in the North Waziristan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), when Afghan border guards opened fire at them. Two Afghan border guards were also critically injured in the firing. According to Pakistani officials, the incident occurred at a time when the Pakistani side was closing the border at 7:00 PM. The Afghan border guards asked them not to close the gate, which resulted in a verbal spat resulting in firing from the Afghan side.
On September 7, 2024, at least eight Afghan Taliban soldiers, including two ‘key’ commanders, Khalil and Jan Muhammad, were killed while another 16 Taliban fighters sustained injuries during a clash between Pakistani Security Forces (SFs) and the Afghan Taliban along the border between the Kurram District of KP, Pakistan, and the Khost Province of Afghanistan. The conflict reportedly broke out in the morning of September 7, when Taliban forces attempted to construct a security outpost on the Afghan side, prompting Pakistani troops to open fire to force the other side to stop their activity. The Afghan side then attacked a Pakistani check post with heavy weapons in the Palosin area on the border. At least five Pakistan SFs personnel and seven Afghan border guards were injured in the exchange of fire, using mortar shells on both sides, along the border in the Shorko area of Kurram District in KP. The exchange of fire continued from time to time till September 9.
Earlier, in the night of September 4, there was an exchange of fire between Pakistani and Afghan border forces at least at three different locations along the international border in the Kurram District of KP, which borders Khost province of Afghanistan. Media sources quoting both Pakistan and Afghan officials reported casualties on both sides, but there were no exact numbers available.
On August 19, 2024, a Frontier Corps (FC) trooper, identified as Subedar Tariq, was killed in an armed clash with Afghan forces in the Gaznali area on the Pak-Afghan border in the Nushki District of Balochistan. A senior FC official, requesting anonymity, claimed that Afghan forces opened fire on FC personnel when they went to the Gaznali Check Post after receiving reports about damage to the fence erected by Pakistan to check infiltration from Afghanistan. There was no report of casualties on the Afghanistan side of the border.
On August 12, 2024, three Afghan civilians, including a woman and two children, were killed and three Pakistan SF personnel sustained injuries when the border forces of Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged heavy fire after the Pakistani side objected to Afghan forces constructing a disputed check post along the Torkham border in the Khyber District of KP. Initially, light weapons were fired but later both sides used heavy weapons, including artillery, targeting each other’s positions. The exchange resulted in the closure of the border for all types of movement.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan border region has seen a succession of two types of violent incidents: attacks by infiltrating militants on SF check posts/camps and exchanges of fire between the SFs of both sides over the issues of border fencing and construction of security posts. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), since April 2007, when the first such clash was reported, there have been at least 21 incidents of clashes between SFs on both sides, in which 56 persons, including 37 SF personnel and 19 civilians, have been killed on the Pakistani side (data till September 22, 2024). The Taliban rarely confirms its own casualties.
According to the SATP database, 10 incidents (including the seven mentioned above) of exchanges of fire between the SFs of both countries have been reported in 2024, till September 22, resulting in seven fatalities (Three civilians and four SF personnel) and 11 persons injured (all SF personnel), while the Afghan side conceded 19 fatalities (11 civilians and eight SF personnel) and 25 persons injured (all SF personnel). In 2023, border clashed along border had seen three incidents, resulting in two persons injured, one civilian and one SF trooper. Fatalities on the Afghan side were not known. In 2022, there was only one border clash between SFs of both countries, resulting in the death of six Pakistani civilians and injuries to another 17. Casualties on the Afghan side are not known.
Further, terrorist attacks have also been occurring along the border, in attempts to infiltrate from Afghan to Pakistani territory. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 11 violent attacks by terrorists from across the border, resulting in 35 deaths (33 terrorists and two SF trooper) and six persons injured (all SF personnel) inside Pakistan, have been reported in the current year (data till September 22, 2024). During 2023 as well, nine such incidents, resulting in 35 fatalities (18 terrorists and 17 SF personnel) and 51 persons injuries (40 terrorists and 11 SF personnel), were reported. Seventeen such incidents, resulting in 40 deaths (31 SF personnel, seven civilians and two terrorists) were reported in 2022. There were 12 such incidents, resulting in 19 deaths (16 SF personnel and three militants) were reported in 2021; seven in 2020, resulting in 11 fatalities (10 SF personnel and one militant); and another seven in 2019, with 22 fatalities (20 SF personnel and two militants).
The Pakistan Government’s unilateral efforts to erect border fencing construct border fortification along the Durand Line on the pretext of stopping cross-border infiltration, is the main reason for the clashes between the SFs of both countries over the years. Though the conflict over the legitimacy of the Durand Line – the border imposed by Imperial Britain – is more than a century old, the recent clashes linked to border-fencing started in September 2005, when Pakistan first announced that it had plans to build a 2,611-kilometre fence (1,230 kilometres in KP and 1,381 kilometres in Balochistan) along its border with Afghanistan, purportedly to check armed militants and drug smugglers moving between the two countries. But Afghanistan raised objections on the grounds that this was an attempt to make the disputed border permanent. After Kabul’s objections, Pakistani authorities temporarily put the plan on hold.
Over a year later, on December 26, 2006, Pakistan again declared its plans for mining and fencing the border, but was again opposed by the Afghanistan Government. The then Afghan President Hamid Karzai stated, on December 28, 2006, that the move would only hurt the people living in the region and would not stem cross-border terrorism.
The attempt to build the fence provoked the first skirmish in April 2007 in the then South Waziristan Agency. Pakistani SFs operating in the region had positioned a three-tier security deployment on April 11, 2007, to stop cross-border infiltration by terrorists into Afghanistan, and had fenced 12-kilometers of the border stretch with Afghanistan. However, on April 19, Afghan troops tore down the fence leading to a gun-battle, though there were no casualties. Another attempt was made in May 2007, when Pakistan erected the first section of a fence in the Lowara Mandi area of the then North Waziristan Agency on May 10, 2007, which led to cross-border firing between Pakistani and Afghan forces, in which at least seven Afghan soldiers were killed. The border fencing programme, meanwhile, was halted between 2007 and 2013, due intense pressure from terrorist active along the border areas. Later, Pakistan started excavation work on a several-hundred-kilometres-long trench along the Balochistan border in April 2013. The work has progressed rapidly since, and gained further momentum after 2017.
On April 25, 2023, at a press conference, ISPR Director General Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry disclosed that 98 per cent of the fencing work on the 2,611-kilometre Pakistan-Afghan border had been completed. He added, further, that 85 per cent of the proposed forts had also been established on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, to curtail the movement of terrorists.
Despite this, much to the disappointment of the Pakistani establishment who sought to secure the western border from terrorists, especially TTP, strikes across the border continue to occur with impunity. The volatility at the Af-Pak border has increased since the return of the Afghan Taliban to power in Kabul in August 2021. Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, Director of News at The Khorasan Diary, a website tracking militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan, noted on May 17, 2024, that the Taliban blames Islamabad’s border fence for the tensions. At the same time, Pakistani authorities allege that the TTP is exploiting the border to infiltrate into Pakistan with the Taliban’s help: “Unlike previous Afghan regimes led by Karzai and Ghani, which largely relied on verbal criticisms over border issues, the Taliban has resorted to force,” he observed, referring to former Afghan Presidents Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai declared, on February 15, 2024, that Afghanistan would never recognize the Durand Line as a border. Speaking at a gathering in Logar on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Stanikzai asserted that Afghanistan’s territory was still on the other side of the line: “We have never recognized Durand and will never recognize it. Today half of Afghanistan is separated and is on the other side of the Durand Line. Durand is the line which was drawn by the English on the heart of Afghans. And today our neighbouring country deports the refugees in a very cruel manner and they are being told to return to their country.”
Earlier on February 1, 2024, Noorullah Noori, the acting Taliban Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs, referred to the Durand Line as an “imaginary line” and contested the clarity of the border between the two countries. However, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch countered that the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is an internationally recognised and legally valid reality.
As long as the border issue remains unresolved between the two countries, the use of proxy forces, the harbouring and facilitation of terrorist groups, strikes across the border and clashes along it, will all continue. Given the pole positions of the two sides on the issue, however, there is little possibility of a negotiated settlement. Indeed, despite decades of support to the Afghan mujahideen, followed by further decades of support and safe haven to the Taliban, no Government in Afghanistan has ever accepted the legitimacy of the Durand Line. This is unlikely to change, creating the foundations of an irreducible conflict.
Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
September 16-22, 2024
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.