Early morning police raid on houses of 25 drug peddlers, six arrested

Police Commissioner, Ludhiana, Swapan Sharma led a special operation, which he termed as ‘surgrical strike’, and raided the places of 25 drug peddlers in Haibowal and Jawahar Camp. Six smugglers were arrested in this operation and drugs were seized from the houses by the police. This is part of a fresh strategy to take on the drug peddlers. This raids started at 4 am and ended at 7 am.

Revealing about the strike, Sharma said that in cordon and search operation (CASO) the police used to select an area for which huge force was required for searching houses and random frisking people. But this practice usually cause harassment to genuine people as well. Now, the Ludhiana police has changed its strategy against drug peddlers and named it ‘surgical strike’, under which houses of specific smugglers will only be targeted.

Like today, 25 drug peddlers were targeted, whose places had already been identified and their activities being watched for over a week. After confirming their involvement in drug peddling, raids were conducted at the places of these identified peddlers, added the Comissiner. He revealed that these 25 drug peddlers were already facing several cases of drug peddling and were out on bail, but they didn’t shun peddling. During the raids, smugglers were caught from their houses and drugs seized from them. Some of the smugglers, however, managed to escape before the police reached their places.

List of hundreds of peddlers prepared

Commissioner Sharma said the commissionerate had already prepared a list of hundreds of drug peddlers who were out on bail and suspected to be involved in drug peddling. They may face similar strike anytime now.

Police to strike on smugglers once every fortnight

A special team of the Special Cell has been formed, and an inspector ranked officer will lead the team. This officer will carry out surveillance on drug peddlers who are out on bail in drug peddling cases and will scan their day-to-day activities.

An officer will also keep a tab on the clients who get these drugs. After zeroing on the entire information, the police will conduct surgical strike once every fortnight.

“This strike will remains secret as only a few officers who were keeping a tab on the activities of smugglers or some senior officers will be aware about strike. Even the police personnel will be told to reach only a few hours before the operation,” asserted Sharma.

Ludhiana