CHANDIGARH, December 9:
Amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Police on Tuesday carried out a special operation ‘OPS Seal-XXIII’ aimed at checking all the vehicles entering or exiting the border state of Punjab to keep vigil around anti-social elements, drug traffickers and bootleggers.
During the operation, conducted simultaneously in all the districts on the directions of Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav, all the SSPs of border districts were directed to organise joint Naka operations at strategic places in their respective districts and mobilise a maximum number of manpower to lay strong ‘nakas’ at sealing points under the supervision of Gazetted officers/SHOs.
Sharing details, Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla said that well-coordinated strong nakas involving over 600 Police Personnel were set up under the supervision of Inspectors/DSPs at least 65 entry/exit points of 10 districts, which share boundaries with four border states and UT Chandigarh. The 10 inter-state border districts include Pathankot, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Fazilka, Rupanagar, SAS Nagar, Patiala, Sangrur, Mansa, Hoshiarpur and Bathinda.
He said that as many as 1182 vehicles entering/exiting the state were checked, of which 234 were challaned and two were impounded during the operation. Police teams have also registered five FIRs and arrested three persons during the operation.
Apart from this, Police teams have continued its cordon and search operation (CASO) against drugs on Day 283, and conducted raids at 346 locations on Tuesday leading to the arrest of 95 drug smugglers after registration of 68 first information reports (FIRs) across the state. With this, the number of total drug smugglers arrested has reached to 39,864 within 283 days.
The Special DGP said that the raids have resulted in recovery of 1.5 kg heroin, 429 grams opium, 6 kg ganja, 21 kg poppy husk and Rs 2.95 lakhs drug money from the possession of arrested drug smugglers.
He informed that over 120 Police teams, comprising over 1000 police personnel, under the supervision of 70 gazetted officers have conducted raids across the state and checked as many as 340 suspicious persons during the day long operation.
The Special DGP said that with the state government has enforced a three-pronged strategy— Enforcement, Deaddiction and Prevention (EDP)— to eradicate drugs from the state, the Punjab Police as part of ‘De-addiction’ has convinced 40 persons to undergo de-addiction and rehabilitation treatment today.
