Ahead of Assembly Elections in Neighbouring States, Punjab Police tightens noose around drug smugglers & bootleggers

As part of the ongoing campaign to make Punjab a safe and secure state as desired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Police on Monday carried out a special operation ‘OPS Seal-VIII’ aimed at checking all the vehicles entering or exiting the border state of Punjab to keep tab at drug trafficking and liquor smuggling, besides, keeping vigil on the movement of gangsters and anti-social elements in wake of forthcoming assembly elections in Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir.

The operation was conducted in a synchronised manner from 6am to 2pm on the directions of Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav.

Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla said that all the Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) of the border districts were asked to coordinate with their counterparts the bordering states and Union Territory (UT) to ensure effective Nakabandi as part of 'OPS Seal-VIII’. All the SSPs of Border districts were directed to organise joint Naka operations at strategic places of the border districts and mobilise a maximum number of manpower to lay strong ‘nakas’ at sealing points under the supervision of Gazetted officers/SHOs, he added. 

He said that well-coordinated strong nakas involving over 1000 Police Personnel were set up under the supervision of Inspectors/DSPs at least 92 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, Ropar, SAS Nagar, Patiala, Sangrur, Mansa, Hoshiarpur and Bathinda.

He said that during the operation, a thorough search of suspected vehicles/persons was conducted while ensuring minimum inconvenience was caused to the general public. Besides checking the vehicles, Police teams have also verified their registration numbers using the VAHAN mobile app, he added.

“We had strictly instructed all the Police Personnel to deal with every commuter in a friendly and polite manner while checking their vehicles during this operation,” he added.

The Special DGP said that as many as 4245 vehicles entering/exiting the state were checked, of which 293 were challaned and 16 were impounded. The Police have also registered 26 first information reports (FIRs) after arresting 27 persons. While, the police teams have rounded up 401 suspicious persons for questioning.

During the operation, police teams have also recovered 1.1Kg opium 29kg poppy husk, 42kg intoxicant powder, 1070 intoxicant capsules/tablets and huge amount of licit and illicit liquor.

Meanwhile, such operations help in showing the police presence in the field, besides, infusing fear among anti-social elements and instilling a sense of security among common people.