The permissible cross-loC freight and passenger movement in Kashmir has hit a roadblock after Pakistan claimed diplomatic immunity for a truck driver arrested by police in north Kashmir after more than a hundred kilograms of narcotics were recovered from his vehicle.
The authorities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) refused entry to their own 48 trucks, which had crossed the loC on January 27 after they were informed that narcotics have been recovered from one truck and its driver has been taken into custody. As quid pro quo, the PoK authorities withheld 27 trucks and their drivers who have crossed the loC from the Indian side on the same day.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Shailendra Kumar told reporters in Srinagar that the authorities confiscated over a hundred kilograms of narcotics at Salamabad Trade Facilitation Centre near Uri in frontier Baramulla district from a truck plying from Muzaffarabad (PoK) with load of almonds.
The lorry had crossed the loC on Friday under the arrangement of cross-loC trade between two parts of Kashmir. The multi-crore trade has started in 2008 under the aegis of Home Ministry as a confidence building measures between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
However, the barter trade has hit many a roadblocks. Incidents of smuggling of weapons and drugs have been reported in the past also.
“The Superintendent of Police Baramulla took a team of forensic experts to Salamabad and the seized items tested positive for narcotics,” Kumar said. He said that the truck carrying the narcotics was seized and its driver was arrested.
The remaining 48 trucks that had come were allowed to go back as per routine. The 27 trucks which had gone from this side were also expected to return on the same day (January 18)”, he said.