Heroin accused escapes NCB custody in Jammu

Jammu, Sep 7: A man arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) with 522 grams of heroin in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir has escaped from the agency’s custody in Jammu, triggering a manhunt and intensified checking across the region.
The accused has been identified as Aqib Bashir, a resident of Kakapora in Pulwama district. According to officials, Bashir escaped from NCB custody at Narwal during the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
The NCB had arrested Bashir on September 3 after intercepting a passenger bus near the New Bus Stand in Samba, where 522 grams of heroin was recovered from him. The seizure formed part of a wider NCB investigation into heroin trafficking routes into Jammu and Kashmir.
Following his escape, police and other security agencies have intensified frisking and vehicle checks at key entry and exit points across the region. Search teams have been deployed at various locations to trace and apprehend the accused.
Reports citing officials said multiple teams have been constituted and searches are underway at different locations, while police have established nakas in and around Jammu. An inquiry is also expected into the circumstances that allowed the accused to escape and to determine responsibility for the security lapse.
Bashir’s arrest was part of a month-long NCB operation that uncovered two suspected heroin trafficking routes into J&K—one through Punjab and another through the Uri sector. In four interceptions in the Jammu division, along with a linked recovery in Punjab, the agency has seized 6.920 kg of heroin and arrested six accused persons.
In the Samba case, the NCB had followed the backward trail of the 522-gram consignment to Ludhiana, where another 197 grams of heroin was recovered in a follow-up operation, taking the linked recovery to 719 grams.
The escape now raises questions over the security arrangements at the NCB facility and the circumstances in which an accused in a major narcotics case managed to get out of custody. [KNT]