Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbagh Singh Saturday claimed that American assault rifle M4, which was among the seized weapons in the union territory recently, was being “illegally manufactured somewhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan”.
He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of Under-19 T20 Zonal level cricket tournament at Sher-i-Kashmir Cricket Stadium in Srinagar.
“The weapons seized last year was huge, incomparable to what we have seized in previous years. In all, there were 475 weapons seized last year. The number was not even half of this in 2019,” the top cop of the union territory said.
He said among the recoveries were pistols, AK assault rifles, M4 rifles, narcotics and cash as well.
“M4 actually is an American rifle but there are duplicates manufactured somewhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan,” he claimed.
Singh said drugs are being smuggled in from Pakistan using drones and other means.
“If I say the gift of narcotics substance is coming from there (Pakistan), it will become clear to you — be it the Kashmir border, Rajouri-Poonch or Jammu-Kathua-Samba border. For some time now, narcotics are being dropped using the drones. The quantity of narcotics that has been seized is unprecedented. We are making our best efforts to counter this menace in an organised manner,” he said.
Singh said a new wing – anti-narcotics task force — has been set up in the Crime Branch to deal with the drug menace.
On the infiltration of militants from Pakistan, the DGP said he would like to believe that it will remain low during this year as well.
“I can’t say whether it will rise with changing weather because the security grid is working effectively. But I believe that it will stay low as there is a complete stop on ceasefire violations since the dialogue was resumed. We don’t have any information about infiltration. If there are such attempts, we are geared up to deal with it,” he added.
On the missing Army-man Shakir Manzoor from Shopian district, Singh said “We don’t know where he has been killed and buried. We are trying to trace his whereabouts. When we get to know something we will share it with his family.”
Rifleman, Shakir Manzoor of 162 Battalion (TA) hailing from Harmain village of Shopian, went missing on the evening of August 02 near Kulgam where his burnt car was found abandoned.
Army had suspected that the soldier was abducted by militants.
DGP also said that there has been a 100 percent drop in the ceasefire violations since the ceasefire agreement was resumed by India and Pakistan last month and no fresh cases of infiltration have been reported.
“Infiltration has been checked to a great level, our security grid is doing a good job all through the year,” he said. “There has been a 100 percent drop in the cases of ceasefire violations along the borders after the resumption of ceasefire agreement.”
He also said a large number of youth have shunned the path of violence and whatever little militant activity is seen in Srinagar city and some other areas will also come down.
He said religious leaders, social leaders and people from the media have to put their heads together to see that the youth do not go on the path of violence and do not play with their lives.
“We have been able to bring back around three dozen boys who had joined militancy, they have come back and joined their families,” he said.
About the cricket tournament organized by police, the DGP said with the improvement in weather, it was “time to promote sports activities”.
He said police are planning to scale up sports activities in J&K even as the current rise in COVID-19 cases will be given due consideration in terms of the required SOPs.
