In 2021, National Investigation Agency filed a chargesheet against 11 persons, including a drug smuggler, Jasmeet Singh Hakimzada. Reports suggest that he has been tracked down in Dubai with the help of the local police. Hakimzada is accused of financing Khalistani terrorist activities of the banned terrorist organisation Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) in Punjab.
Indian Express quoted an unnamed official saying, “After locating him (in Dubai), some coordination work is going on between the intelligence agencies of both the countries.”
Apart from Hakimzada, Jasbir Singh Samra, Nirmal Singh, Satpal Singh, Harpreet Singh, Harjit Singh, Varinder Singh Chahal, Dharmendra Singh and Jasbir Singh were booked under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code, relevant Sections of UAPA and NDPS Act. The chargesheet was filed in a case linked to the recovery of 500 gm of heroin and Rs 1.2 lakh of drug money in May 2019.
In that case, the investigation agencies found links to Pakistan-based KLF chief Harmeet Singh and Hakimzada. It was reported that they were running a narco-terror network in India to provide funds for the terror activities of KLF. The network included drug mafia, terrorists and hawala operators based in Dubai, Delhi and Punjab who were working at the behest of Hakimzada and Harmeet.
Narco terrorism and its impact on India
India has been a victim of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism for decades. There have been several instances where drugs originated from Pakistan and have been seized in India. Pakistan’s government, in collaboration with the ISI, is using narcotics to fund terrorism in India.
In May 2020, it was reported that Punjab Police exposed the link of narco-terrorism in the country. The police arrested one Ranjeet Singh alias Rana alias Cheeta who had links with Hizbul Commander Riyaz Naikoo. Punjab police described Ranjeet Singh as one of the biggest drug smugglers in India. Along with him, his brother Gagandeep alias Bhola was also arrested from Begu village in Sirsa, Haryana.
Narco terrorism has been one of the major issues in the border states between India and Pakistan. In October 2019, PM Modi said, “When our neighbour could not succeed in its nefarious designs by sending terrorists and weapons, it hatched a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into our country to destroy our youth.” In 2018, while talking about the drug problem in Punjab, Punjab CM, Amarinder Singh said, “Pakistan has a long-term plan of destroying our youth. They are trying to demolish the youth along the border.” According to him, he was referring to seizures of hundreds of kilograms of drugs in Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir that were intended for Punjab.
Narco-terrorism as a word was first used in the 1980s in the US when drug smugglers in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Nicaragua, and other Central Americans started using the illegal trade as a profession.
One of the most notable uses of drug money and drug trafficking routes in terror operations in India was the 1993 terrorist attacks in Mumbai in which the Dawood Ibrahim gang was involved. It was found that the explosives used in the terror attack were brought to India using the same routes that the Dawood gang used to smuggle people, arms, and contraband.
During the peak of the Khalistan movement in Punjab, Sikh terrorists in Punjab made an “unholy alliance” with the drug traffickers. They used to get weapons from Pakistan with the help of drug traffickers. The traffickers arrested by the security forces confessed on many instances that the security forces on the other side allowed them to cross the border on the condition that they would deliver weapons to the terrorist organisations in India. Even after terrorism in Punjab was crushed by the security forces, the use of drug traffickers to deliver weapons and funds to terror organisations is still in use.
