Tarn Taran, October 15, 2026: Border Security Force (BSF) personnel intercepted a Punjab Police constable posted with the state’s anti-drone system and recovered roughly 15–16 kg of heroin from his personal car near the India-Pakistan border in Tarn Taran district early on Wednesday. The accused, identified as Constable Karandeep Singh of Bhuse village, was later handed over to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for further probe into alleged cross-border links.
Officials cited in reports said the interception took place around 6 a.m. near Naushehera Dhalla, also referred to as Naushara Dalla, in the Sarai Amanat Khan area. Karandeep Singh was reportedly on two days’ leave and off duty when BSF personnel at a checkpoint became suspicious during a check. A search of the vehicle led to the recovery of three packets containing the contraband, while Tarn Taran Senior Superintendent of Police Surendra Lamba confirmed 15 kg of heroin; some accounts put the figure closer to 16 kg. The constable has been suspended and is to face a departmental inquiry.
Preliminary findings suggest that Singh, who was posted with the anti-drone system under Khalra police station’s jurisdiction, allegedly picked up a drone-dropped consignment from across the Pakistan border and was carrying it onward for delivery. Agency sources have described him as a drug addict, and it is stated that he joined the Punjab Police in 2018. Investigators are questioning him about possible handlers and the larger network behind the supply chain.
The recovered contraband and the accused have been transferred to the NCB, which is examining the case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The matter has drawn attention because Singh was deployed with Punjab’s ‘Baaz Akh’ (Hawk Eye) anti-drone system, installed by the state government in August 2025 as a second line of defence behind the BSF.
The system includes multiple units along the border belt from Pathankot to Fazilka and is meant to detect drones and their ground-control stations used for smuggling drugs and weapons. Punjab shares a 553-km international border with Pakistan across districts including Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot, Fazilka, Ferozepur and Gurdaspur. At the time of its launch, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had called it the first such state-level initiative.
In a related development the same day, Pathankot police, acting on intelligence, arrested two other suspects—Gurpanth of Vadala village in Amritsar Rural and Harmanjeet Kaur of Dhianpur village in Gurdaspur—and recovered about 7.8 kg of heroin. Police said the packets in that seizure carried distinctive seal impressions and Pakistani markings, and a case under Section 21 of the NDPS Act was registered at Sadar police station, Pathankot, in FIR No. 155 dated October 12, 2026.
