MUZAFFARABAD: Pakis­tan took up with India on Saturday the issue of arrest of a resident of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) — a truck driver — by authorities in India-held Kashmir on drug trafficking charges, an issue which has again led to suspension of intra-Kashmir trade.

“We summoned India’s deputy high commissioner and raised this issue with him. We are waiting for their reply,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told Dawn by telephone from Islamabad.

On Friday, intra-Kashmir trade was hit by another controversy after reports said the IHK authorities had recovered “suspected contraband substance” from one of the trucks going from AJK.

Following the development, 22 trucks from AJK and 50 from IHK, which had ferried various goods across the Line of Control (LoC) earlier on Friday, have been held up on the opposite sides along with their drivers.

According to the standard operating procedure for the barter trade, empty trucks should simultaneously return from the two sides by the same afternoon.

Indian security officials alleged that during routine check-up at the Trade Facilitation Centre in Uri, they seized around 10kg of “narcotic substance” concealed in boxes of oranges.

According to sources, the consignment was booked by one Mushtaq Ahmed Mir on this side for one Zahoor Ahmad Malla in IHK.

Both Malla and truck driver Inayat Shah, a resident of Kumi Kot village near here, have been taken into custody by the IHK authorities.

The AJK officials and their IHK counterparts held a meeting on Friday night at Chakothi-Uri crossing point to resolve the issue at the local level, but to no avail. Then the matter was referred to the Foreign Office.

In January last year, a similar allegation by the IHK authorities had led to the arrest of a truck driver, who is still imprisoned across the LoC.

Published in Dawn February 8th , 2015

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