Drones used by Pakistan to smuggle drugs into India
Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, the Special Assistant on Defence to Pakistan Prime Minister admits
New Delhi – A senior official in the Pakistan Government has admitted that Pakistani smugglers are using drones to smuggle illicit drugs, mostly heroin into Indian territory.
Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, the Special Assistant on Defence to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made these remarks to Hamid Mir, a journalist associated with Pakistan’s Geo News.
Mir has posted a video on his Twitter handle of the interview with Khan, who is also the Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) representing Kasur city, which borders the state of Punjab in India. “Recently there have been two incidents where 10 kg heroin was tied to each drone and thrown across. Agencies are trying to stop this.” Captioning the video, Mir later wrote: “Big disclosure by PM’s advisor Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan. Smugglers using drones in the flood affected areas of Kasur near the Pakistan-India border to transport heroin. He demanded a special package for the rehabilitation of the flood victims, otherwise victims will join smugglers.”
Shehbaz aide admits drones are dropping drugs in Punjab on Pak TV show@AnvitSrivastava shares more details@ridhimb | #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/DxKvduLlfr
— News18 (@CNNnews18) July 28, 2023
Mir said the fact that the admission came from Khan is significant. Malik Mohammad Ahmad Khan is an MPA from Kasur and he is very close to the political and military establishment in Pakistan. He was very close to the previous Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and also to the present military hierarchy. When asked what prompted him to ask the question on smuggling of drugs using drones, Mir said he had been touring Kasur, which is surrounded by India on three sides. These villagers (in Kasur) say they get no mobile signals. They spoke about movement of drones and smuggling of drugs from Pakistan into India and liquor from India into Pakistan. Khan told me that mobile signals here are jammed by security agencies due to cross-border drone movements
When contacted, a senior BSF officer in Punjab said cross-border smuggling of drugs and arms has continued through use of drones despite India having repeatedly raised the issue with Pakistan. The official, who did not wish to be named, said that this year alone 260 kg of heroin, 19 arms, 30 magazines, 470 rounds of ammunition and 30 Pakistani drones were recovered from Punjab’s border areas.
| Editorial viewpoint
Please note that despite knowing this, Pakistan Government is not taking any action ! |