Punjab Police sizes huge cache of illicit liquor from two Himachal villages

The Punjab Police on Friday seized a huge cache of illicit liquor from two villages in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, an official said. In a 10-hour long joint operation with Himachal Pradesh Police braving tough forest terrain of Majri and Dabt villages, the police teams seized seven illicit liquor making 'bhattis' and two lakh kilograms of 'lahan' (raw material for making illicit liquor), the official said.

As many as 22 police teams comprising seven police personnel each participated in the operation that began at 3 am and ended at 1 pm on Friday, said the official. The police teams had to cut through the dense and thorny undergrowth to get in, said Rupnagar Senior Superintendent of Police Swapan Sharma.

The teams cordoned off the entire area around the villages, located about two-km from the Punjab border, said Sharma, adding that the search operation covered a six-km long stretch along the state border. Investigations are in progress to trace further links of the accused across Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, Sharma said in an official release here.

The seizure came amid state-wide efforts by the Punjab Police, under the directives of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, to check the trade of illicit liquor as well as smuggling of liquor from across the state's borders. Sharma said liquor and drug smuggling is prevalent in the two Himachal Pradesh villages and the areas around them.

The smugglers take advantage of the forest cover and the lack of access in the tough terrain to sneak into Punjab from Himachal Pradesh with their hauls. In the last five years, 26 cases in Punjab and 38 cases in Himachal have been registered against people hailing from these areas..