Two truckloads of willow clefts seized in Kathua

Jammu and Kashmir Excise department today foiled a bid to smuggle 9760 willow clefts to Punjab and detained two people at Lakahnpur Inter-state toll plaza in Kathua district.
"The Excise department at Toll Post Lakhanpur today thwarted a major smuggling bid when it seized two trucks carrying 9760 willow clefts that were being smuggled to Punjab from Jammu and Kashmir," an official spokesman said.
He said that the recovery was made when the two trucks were trying to cross the state border using an illicit route through the Ujh River.
The willow clefts form raw material for manufacturing of cricket bats by local industrial units in Jammu and Kashmir and its export in raw form is not permissible under the state laws.

The Deputy Excise commissioner Rajesh Sharma said that the vehicles were being driven by Charan Dass and Ram Pal both residents of Kathua district and used the river route for the smuggling of the clefts outside the State in order to bypass the toll barriers.
The vehicles along with the seized willow clefts have been handed over to the Forest Protection Force of the forest department for further investigation in the matter, he said.