BSF orders probe into 'smugglers' tunnel' along Rajasthan border

JAIPUR: The Border Security Force on Tuesday night ordered a probe to ascertain whether any tunnel was dug up by narcotic peddlers along the Indo-Pak border in Rajasthan's Barmer district for smuggling heroin and other goods.

A court of inquiry had been ordered to check the veracity of media reports which spoke about existence of a cross-border tunnel, DIG BSF (Jodhpur) R C Dhayani said.

On Monday, the BSF said there was no evidence to suggest that a tunnel existed underneath the border fence.

It said a joint team of Jodhpur Police and the BSF took two alleged smugglers who, according to the media had made the disclosure about the tunnel, to the place where the passage was supposed to exist.

The two failed to locate any tunnel, the BSF said.

According to sources, a cross-border tunnel exits underneath the fencing along the international border (IB) in Rajasthan through which drugs and fake currency were smuggled into Indian territory.

The sensational revelation was made by two alleged smugglers, Iliyas and Eklu, to BSF officers on Sunday.

Sources said that a team of officers took the two to Aman Ka Par border outpost (BOP) along the IB in Barmer and asked them to locate the tunnel.

The two failed to do so as it was after sundown that they reached there, but confessed to meeting their Pakistani contacts and accepting consignments from them. Official sources said that a Pakistani national, Salem, came to the IB on the Pakistani side as recently as December 2 and delivered heroin to Iliyas and Eklu using the tunnel. He managed to return without being caught.

According to IG Jodhpur range, Rajeev Dasot, smugglers from both the sides prepared the plan jointly and transferred the consignments. It isn't clear how long the tunnel has been in operation. Dasot said the cops got wind of the breach during the interrogation of the recently-arrested Tanzanian drug-peddlers, Adam Godwin, Adam Mohammad and Umar Yousuf. He also said that the mastermind, Jamal Khan, a resident of Jaisalmer, along with Iliyas and Eklu, delivered the consignment to the Tanzanians in Jodhpur.

Dasot said Salem left his village, Bala, on the intervening night of December 1 and 2 with a 20-kg bag of heroin. Bala is around three km from the IB on the Pakistani side. He then entered Indian territory through the tunnel and, after staying near Aman Ka Par border outpost on Indian side for over an hour, slipped back into Pakistan after delivering the heroin to Iliyas and Eklu.