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Manas Dasgupta
Ahmedabad, October 5
Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad, which recently busted a drug racket, has claimed proceeds from sale of 310-kg heroin consignments smuggled to Punjab and northern states through Gujarat were used to fund activities of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) operating across the Kashmir border.
Sources in the ATS, which arrested kingpin of racket Arshad Razak Sotta, alias Raju Dubai, from the India-Nepal border, said Arshad informed the police that he met a Pakistani in Dubai in January this year and offered him a deal to smuggle drugs to India to make up for the losses he had suffered in purchasing a 300-tonne dhow.
Arshad, a resident of Mandvi in Kutch, grabbed the offer and the Pakistani arranged a meeting with Pakistan-based drug peddler Haaji Jaan Mohammad who had links with the JeM. According to the police, Arshad’s job was to dispatch the smuggled heroin brought by sea route from Pakistan to northern states. Simranjeet Sandhu, an Australian passport holder, allegedly received consignments to further distribute in Punjab and other northern states. The drug sale proceeds were handed over to Manzoor Mir in Kashmir who passed on the funds to the JeM under the garb of purchasing walnuts and carpets at grossly inflated prices from across the border.
The police said Simranjeet Sandhu and Manzoor Mir were still absconding. The first consignment of 105-kg heroin was smuggled to Kutch in March by a dhow owned by Aziz Bhagat, a resident of Jam Salaya in Jamnagar district, while the second consignment of 205-kg heroin was smuggled in August. The arrest of Aziz and Sumra last month with 5-kg heroin each at Unjha in Mehsana district had led to the busting of the racket.
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