Apple burglars on prowl in south Kashmir

Shopian, Oct 8: With thieves striking more apple farms in the Shopian district, there does not seem to be any let up in the incidents of apple burglary in the apple-rich areas of south Kashmir.

Over the last 36 hours, the burglars struck at least three apple orchards in Kachdoora and Zainpora villages of Shopian district and took away around 560 apple boxes.

The harvested crop was kept within the orchards, sprawling over several kanal in these villages.

On Saturday night, burglars stole at least 110 apple boxes from the apple farm of Ghulam Ahmad Sheikh in Kachdoora village.

Similarly, on Friday night, burglars took away 350 apple crates from an apple farm in the Zainpora area of the district.

Gayas Ahamd Khan told Greater Kashmir that the burglars stole the apple he had harvested over the last three days.

“On Saturday morning, when we came to the farm to pack the harvested crop, we found over 350 apple crates missing from the orchards,” he said.

Khan said that the produce could have fetched him at least Rs 5 lakh in the local fruit mandi.

According to Khan, he had bought the un-harvested crop from the orchard owner recently.

A short walk away from Khan’s farm, burglars struck another orchard and stole at least 100 apple crates belonging to Rouf Ahmad Malla.

A Police official said that they were verifying the case.

On October 2, burglars stole at least 200 harvested apple boxes from an orchard in neighbouring Pulwama.

On September 3, miscreants entered the apple farm of Gulzar Ahmad and damaged the crop.

The frequency of such incidents has left apple cultivators worried in the twin apple-producing districts of Shopian.

Fruit Mundi Shopian President, Muhammad Amin Peer told Greater Kashmir that the rising incidents of burglaries had become a cause of concern for the apple growers in the area.

He said that the Police should step up its efforts to nab the burglars.

“We always see such incidents occurring during the harvesting season. We hope the Police administration takes a serious note of it,” Peer said.