M A I N   N E W S

HEROIN SEIZURE
Train took ‘unusually’ long to reach Amritsar
Perneet Singh and PK Jaiswar/TNS

Amritsar, October 9
Even as the customs authorities are tight-lipped about any breakthrough in yesterday’s seizure of 105 kg heroin in rail cargo from Pakistan, it has come to light that the goods train from which the seizure was made took around four hours to traverse the 25-km distance between Attari and Amritsar.

The goods train arrived at the rail cargo terminal in Amritsar on Sunday night and it remained stationed there for the entire night. The customs authorities smelt a rat after they noticed a broken metal seal on wagon No. 66938 when the unloading of cement bags started on Monday.

Deputy Commissioner, Customs, Vijay Bahadur Singh said that it usually takes a goods train around an hour and a half to traverse the distance between Attari and Amritsar. He, however, said the railways would be in a better position to comment on the delay caused in the arrival of the goods train in question on Sunday.

Prior to this revelation, it appeared that the metal seal on the wagon having the heroin consignment might have been broken somewhere in between Attari and Amritsar. However, the fact that the train remained stranded at the rail cargo terminal in Amritsar has also given birth to the possibility of the seal being broken there.

It has also been learnt that a second drug consignment was seized from a wagon carrying cement consignment imported by a particular trader. However, the intelligence authorities said it would be unfair to hold the trading community responsible for the smuggling.

“It is smugglers based in Pakistan who are exploiting all available routes for pushing contraband consignments into Indian territory,” they said. Sources in the intelligence wing said it was hard to pinpoint involvement of anybody until someone was caught red-handed or there was some strong evidence against anyone. The latest seizure has also brought to the fore the dismal state of the rail cargo service between India and Pakistan. Even after decades of its start, goods from Pakistan are still imported in rickety wagons and stored in the open here due to lack of proper warehousing facility.

Goods unloaded at the terminal are vulnerable to vagaries of weather and also any mischief by anti-national elements, as some of them are sans boundary wall while others are in bad shape.

Loopholes in security are also glaring. There is no also provision for escorting goods trains from Attari to Amritsar. There is no proper lighting arrangement at the rail cargo facility. Moreover, the cargo terminal is open to all.