KOHAT: The smuggling of drugs from Orakzai and Khyber areas to Kohat district through the Indus Highway and unfrequented routes continues largely unchecked while peddlers and habitual addicts have been trapping young people from rich families.

When contacted, district executive officer excise and taxation Mubarik Islam said on Wednesday that the Anti-Narcotics Force was dissolved under the 18th Amendment and the task was given to them in 2010.

However, he added that practically all the staff, vehicles and budget were still with the ANF.

He said they were facing acute shortage of staff after the extension of large commercial areas on Rawalpindi, Bannu and Hangu roads.

Excise official says staff and resources needed to address the issue

“We don’t have the expertise to seize drugs by checking smugglers and peddlers, but we can perform the job diligently after transfer of the staff and all other related resources from ANF,” Mr Islam said.

Orakzai district deputy commissioner Mohammad Khalid told this correspondent that it was the job of the police to check cultivation and also arrest the smugglers and peddlers.

Answering a query, he said earlier when there were political agents they had the powers to call in Frontier Corps to destroy opium crop.

He said he had no data about the land on which hemp was being cultivated, but the area of crop was shrinking as more tribesmen were going for other cash crops like sunflower, wheat, maize besides poultry, and cattle breeding.

He said the government had launched Integrated Green Programme under which Orakzai district would get Rs3.2 billion in the next fiscal.

He claimed that they were regularly holdings jirgas with the elders to discourage cultivation of hemp and use of hash.

ARRESTED: The police arrested a wanted proclaimed offender carrying head money of Rs2 million in Saddar police station limits here on Wednesday.

District police officer Sohail Khalid told mediapersons that following a tip-off they conducted an operation and arrested Saudur Rehman, who was wanted to Punjab, Malakand, Nowshera, and Kohat police in robbery, murder, attempted murder and extortion cases.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2021