NCB launches search after suspected drug peddler escapes custody in Jammu
A suspected drug peddler escaped from the custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Jammu, triggering an alert and intensified search and checking operations across the region, officials said on Monday.
Aqib Bashir, a resident of Pulwama district's Kakaporea, was arrested by the NCB along with 522 grams of heroin from a passenger bus in Samba district on September 3.
Bashir allegedly escaped from NCB custody at Narwal during the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, the officials said.
Following the incident, police and other security agencies stepped up frisking and vehicle checks at key entry and exit points as efforts were launched to trace and apprehend the accused, they said.
Search teams have been deployed at various locations, while details regarding the circumstances under which the accused managed to escape are being ascertained.
Bashir's arrest was part of a successful month-long operation by the NCB in the Jammu division, which helped expose two distinct routes being used by narcotic smugglers to push heroin into Jammu and Kashmir, directly from Pakistan through the Uri sector and indirectly via Punjab.
In four interceptions carried out over the past month, along with a linked recovery in Punjab, the NCB has seized a cumulative 6.920 kg of heroin and arrested six accused persons.
