With the decisive war against drugs waged to root out the drugs menace entering the ninth month, Punjab Police have arrested as many as 11,360 drug smugglers, including 1,628 big fish, since July 5, 2022. The Police have registered a total of 8,458 first information reports (FIRs) of which 962 are related to commercial quantity.

“The Police teams have recovered 612.78 kg heroin from across the State after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas besides laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state,” said the state Inspector General of Police (IGP), Headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill while addressing the weekly press conference on Tuesday.

Apart from seizing big-haul of heroin, IGP Gill said that the Police have also recovered 464.18-kg opium, 586 kg ganja, 270 quintals of poppy husk, and 53.73 lakhs tablets, capsules, injections or vials of pharma opioids from across the State. The Police have also recovered Rs 10.36 crores of drug money from the possession of drug smugglers arrested in these eight months.

Police Recommends Cancellation/Suspension of 8100 Arms Licenses

Days after Punjab Police cancelled 813 arms licenses, the Punjab Police on Tuesday maintained that it have recommended the cancellation or suspension of no less than 8,100 arms licences.

IGP Gill said that out of the recommendation, over 800 licences have been cancelled till date, nearly 1,460 have been suspended till date. The process for reviewing, cancellation, and suspension of weapons licences is in the process,” he added.

In Punjab, there are a total of 3.73 lakhs arms licence holders, with maximum 40,789 in Gurdaspur.

On November 14 last, the State Government had decided to ban public display of weapons and to review all existing arms licences within three months.