Burglars steal apple boxes worth lakhs in Shopian village

Shopian, Dec 12: Burglars late on Monday night struck at an apple shed at an outlying village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district and stole the harvested crop worth lakhs.

The burglars broke into an concrete apple shed in Nildang Batapora village, some 13 kms from Shopian town, and took away hundreds of apple cartons.

Zahoor Ahmad Wagay, owner of the store, told Greater Kashmir that on Monday night the burglars broke open the iron door of the store and took away at least 400 apple cartons valued at over Rs 5 lakh in the market.

According to Wagay, they had stored the harvested crop inside the shed at their orchard, barely 300 meters from their house.

“We were in the process of packing and had already packed around 45 boxes”, said Wagay. He said that on Tuesday morning they were informed by the villagers about the burglary after they found some of the broken apple boxes on the roadside.

“We rushed to the orchard and saw that the store was almost emptied by the thieves,” Wagay said.

He said that the thieves had used single-tyre hand carts to ferry the boxes up to the main road from the orchard.

“They had left four carts there, which were later seized by police”, said Wagay.

He said that they entirely rely on their apple farm for living. “We live off the land and have no other sources of income”, said Wagay. He said that the police have registered a case and started the investigation.

Many apple farmers in the district have not yet completed the packing and are in the middle of the process. They have raised serious concern following the burglary. Additionally, it is not the first such incident in the area. In October, thieves struck three apple orchards in apple rich villages of Zainpora and Kachdora and stole hundreds of apple boxes.