MUZAFFARABAD: Four members of an inter-provincial gang were arrested by the local police allegedly after recovering around 10kg of fine quality heroin from their possession, an official said on Monday.

City Police Station House Officer (SHO) Rashid Habib Masoodi told reporters that on the basis of a tip provided by police informants, his team raided a house in Domel Syedan neighbourhood late on Sunday night and arrested Mohammad Sarfraz who was in possession of more than 3kg of heroin.

On his indication, the teams raided three camps of Kashmiri migrants, namely Manik Pehan-II, Ambore and Basnara, and arrested Mohammad Ashraf Lone, Mushtaq Ahmed Mir and Yasin Malick, respectively, Mr Masoodi said, adding that the heroin recovered from the trio weighed more than 6.5kg.

Mr Masoodi said preliminary interrogation had revealed that the suspects were part of an inter-provincial gang. However, he said, detailed information would be shared with the media after completion of the investigation process.

According to him, the seized drugs were worth over Rs100 million in the local market.

To a question, Mr Masoodi said the AJK police chief Dr Sohail Habib Tajik would pass on the details of the cross-questioning of suspects to his counterparts in the neighbouring provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and the Islamabad Capital Territory to hunt down the gang members in their respective areas.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2022