Heroin worth Rs 600 crore seized from Pakistani boat off Gujarat coast; 14 held
Ahmedabad, Apr 28: The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has seized 86 kg of drugs worth Rs 600 crore from a Pakistani boat and arrested 14 persons on board the vessel off the Gujarat coast, the maritime security agency said on Sunday.
The overnight operation in the Arabian Sea was carried out in coordination with the Gujarat Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), it said in a release.
This was the 11th such successful joint operation in the past three years involving the Coast Guard and the ATS, it said, seeking to underscore the synergy between the two agencies.
A top Gujarat police official said heroin was seized from the boat.
“In a breathtaking overnight operation, Indian Coast Guard undertook an intelligence-based anti-narcotics operation at sea on 28 Apr 24. Approx 86 kg of narcotics worth Rs 600 crore has been apprehended along with 14 crew from the Pakistani boat,” the agency said in a release.
Coast Guard ships and aircraft were deployed for the operation, it said, adding that ICG ship Rajratan was used to identify the suspect boat with the help of NCB and ATS officials on board.
“No amount of evasive manoeuvring tactics employed by the drug-laden boat could save it from the swift and strong ICG ship Rajratan. The ship’s specialist team embarked on the suspect boat and, after thorough checks, confirmed the presence of a sizable amount of narcotics,” the Coast Guard said.
The Pakistani boat along with its 14-member crew were apprehended and were being brought to Porbandar for further investigations, it added.
“The jointness of ICG and ATS, which has led to eleven such successful law enforcement operations in the last three years, itself reaffirms the synergy for national objectives,” it added.
A total of 78 packets weighing 86 kg were recovered from the Pakistani fishing boat, Gujarat Director General of Police Vikas Sahay said. The packets contained heroin, a powerful recreational opioid, he said, citing the preliminary investigation.
“Indian Coast Guard and ATS officials approached the Pakistani fishing boat and confronted it with bravery. An ICG official had to shoot, after which the crew members of the boat surrendered and the officials detained them," Sahay told media persons.
He said the head of the crew was injured in his right hand in the firing and was undergoing treatment.
After the boat was seized, a second ATS team left for the spot, he said. “All the crew members hail from Balochistan in Pakistan,” he said.
Last month, the Coast Guard, NCB and ATS had caught a boat carrying methamphetamine, a highly addictive psycho-stimulant drug, worth over Rs 400 crore and its six Pakistani crew members off the Porbandar coast in Gujarat, officials had said.
In February, the Indian Navy and the NCB had apprehended a dhow off the Gujarat coast with five crew members and seized 3,300 kg of drugs from it, the largest quantity of narcotics seized in recent times, officials had said.
The narcotic substances included 3,089 kilograms of charas. A kilogram of charas costs nearly Rs 7 crore in international markets, they had said.
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) April 28, 2024
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AI, IndiGo, SpiceJet seek ATF price relief; say airline industry on verge of 'stopping operations'
Mumbai (PTI): Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet have told the government that the country's airline industry is under extreme stress and on the verge of "stopping operations", as they sought revision in ATF pricing and financial support.
The West Asia turmoil has pushed up oil prices, and airspace restrictions have increased airlines' operating costs, especially on long-haul routes. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) accounts for around 40 per cent of a carrier's operational expenses.
Against this backdrop, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) has written to the civil aviation ministry, seeking steps to extend the same fuel pricing mechanism uniformly across both domestic and international operations as was done in the past with the establishment of the crack band.
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With an unprecedented rise in jet fuel prices and exorbitant crack/differential between crude and ATF, the federation said the operation of airlines is being challenged in totality.
"... any ad hoc pricing (domestic vs international) and/or irrational increase in the price of ATF will result in unsurmountable losses for airlines and will lead to grounding of aircraft, resulting in cancellation of flights," the federation, which represents Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet, said.
"In order to survive, sustain and continue operation, we request your urgent intervention for immediate and meaningful financial support to tide over the current situation," it said in a letter on April 26.
Also, the airlines have sought temporary deferment of excise duty on ATF, which is at 11 per cent.
"With the abnormal increase in ATF prices from the pre-crisis period, adding rupee depreciation to the increased prices, the 11 per cent excise duty also increases manifold for the airlines and adds to the ATF price as a big impact on airlines," they said.
Last month, the government limited the hike in ATF price to Rs 15 per litre for domestic operations, but for international operations, the price rose by Rs 73 per litre.
The airlines said the situation has practically made international operations, along with domestic operations, completely unviable and resulted in significant losses for the aviation sector in April.
Seeking urgent intervention on the current ATF ad hoc pricing, FIA said the current situation is creating a severe imbalance in domestic and international operations and rendering airline networks unviable and unsustainable.
"The airline industry in India is under extreme stress and is on the verge of closing down or of stopping its operations."
The federation has pitched for a transparent pricing framework under the crack band mechanism (USD 12–22/BBL) that was implemented in October 2022, saying there was a fair and reasonable margin for Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
According to FIA, the country's largest aviation hub Delhi has the second-highest value-added tax (VAT) of 25 per cent on jet fuel, while the highest rate is 29 per cent levied in Tamil Nadu.
"The other major aviation cities, viz. Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Kolkata range between 16 per cent and 20 per cent. These 6 cities cover more than 50 per cent of airlines' operations within India," the federation said.
