Indian Border Security Force soldiers patrol along the India-Pakistan border fence about 27 KM from Wagah on January 13, 2013. PHOTO: AFP
MUZAFFARABAD:
Indian Kashmir authorities have refused to release a truck driver from Azad Kashmir who was detained for allegedly smuggling drugs in the garb of cross-Line of Control (LoC) trade, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Officials from the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Travel and Trade Authority (Tata) on Saturday met with their counterparts from Indian Kashmir on Chakothi Bridge, officials said.
Officials in Indian Kashmir said they were willing to return 48 trucks and their drivers from Azad Kashmir while the one that allegedly smuggled drugs would not be released. In response, AJK travel and trade officials refused to release 27 trucks from Indian Kashmir. The trucks have been detained on either sides of the border for the past two days.
“We have a proper scanning mechanism at the Chakoti Trade Facilitation Centre and it is not possible to smuggle drugs across the LoC,” Tata Director General Brig (retd) Muhammad Ismail told The Express Tribune. “If the Indian trade authorities have any proof of drugs smuggling they should share it with us, we will investigate and punish the culprits.”
“I think this is a conspiracy hatched by the Indian side to close the cross-LoC trade,” Brig Ismail added.
Sources said the Tata officials assured their Indian counterparts that if the detained driver was handed over to the authorities in Azad Kashmir, they would formally arrest him and investigate the matter. However, the Indian officials didn’t relent. The Intra-Kashmir Trade Union president, Khurshid Mir, told The Express Tribune that the cross-LoC trade was one of the main confidence-building measures (CBMs) signed between the two countries to promote a sluggish peace process between the two South Asian neighbours.
“Now the Indian Kashmir administration has conspired to defame the LoC route and create hatred against Pakistan – but our union would never allow this to happen,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2014.
COMMENTS (15)
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There should be ZERO tollerance for drug smuggling on both sides. If the driver has been caught he must be tried and punished
The day we start accepting our mistakes and learn from them we will come out of our all problems.
i am tired off commenting. when will any positive news come from Pkistan
It is wrong to assume the allegation is a fact. Why are the trucks not checked at the border crossing? I work with Indians all the time - nice people but also quick to lie for their interest.
Another first from Pakistan - crime takes place in IOK and Pakistan wants it tried in AZ. Wow
@Mirza: Spot On.
@rasgullah: oops! this was a recommendation,i had given many times earlier... thank god! ET has at last published it,nowz the time for govt. of india should start putting it into action without delay..
Holding up 27 Indian trucks to protest the seizure of a drug laden one from Pakistan, holds no logic and will only harden attitudes in India. It seems that someone big on the Pakistani side must be involved which is why they want the driver also released.
Support to drug smuggler is offered only when India is involved. No such support is offered to the drug smuggler who is about to be beheaded in KSA. Hypocrites!
We Pakistanis do not indulge in wrongdoings. Specially we do not deal with drugs, weapons and terrorism. Our enemy countries chop our hands and behead our Pakistanis on fake charges. Ops they are our best friends in S. Arabia!
Pakistanis should stop talking conspiracies to defame the Land of the pure for anything and everything. We are sick of hearing such denials and conspiracies. Come up with something else, for a change