KHYBER: The sale of drugs in Jamrud tehsil is understood to have reduced considerably in the last eight to nine months, with the police crackdown leading to the closure of over 900 narcotics shops and 76 heroin manufacturing factories here.

In the recent past, the Jamrud Wazir Dhand market on the border with the Karkhano market in Peshawar and the Shah Kas area was notorious for illegal drug trade, with people openly dealing in heroin, ice, hashish, charas, and ecstasy pills in an organised manner with the support of the local police, according to residents.

Shareefullah of the Wazir Dhand area told Dawn that 3,000–4,000 heroin and ice drug addicts used to come to the area daily to get a “token” from drug dealers for the desired narcotic.

He, however, said that was no longer the case.

DPO says 26 police officials sacked over links with drug lords

“Now, we do not see any of these addicts, at least during the day, as almost all drug outlets are now closed, with drug dealers opting to change their tactics by offering mobile service on a very limited scale at mid-night,” he claimed.

The resident said the young and teenage students would frequently visit Wazir Dhand to buy popular drugs, especially ice and ecstasy pills.

Salahuddin, another resident, said the local population had heaved a sigh of relief after the repeated police action against drug barons and dealers.

“Our locality is now free from drug addicts, who were also involved in theft, burglaries, and some immoral activities,” he said.

The resident said Afghan families, mostly from the Khugiyanrri clan of Nangrahar province and living in the Wazir Dhad and Shah Kas areas for over four decades, were involved in the illegal drug trade.

He added that law-enforcement agencies were reluctant to act against “drug lords due to their strong connections in power corridors.”

“Most of those Afghans, along with some local drug dealers, either fled the area after the police crackdown and settled down in other parts of the country after changing their profession, or went underground fearing arrest,” he said.

The resident claimed that those drug lords, who patronised some local charity organisations in order to deceive both people and the police, went to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah soon after the police began the anti-drugs crackdown.

When contacted, SHO of the Jamrud police station Adnan Afridi said the police were committed to eliminating illegal drugs from the region.

“We have pledged to go after those involved in the illegal trade,”he said.

District police officer Salim Abbas Kulachi told Dawn that in the past, the police registered most FIRs against smalltime drug carriers and addicts instead of “identifying and nabbing” drug dealers and traders.

“Now, we [police] have started registering FIRs against the actual drug traders, who became very influential in society by frequently holding charity events and distributing free goods to the poor and needy,” he said.

He said checkposts in Jamrud and Wazir Dhand markets were considered “very lucrative” by his subordinates, most of whom protected drug dealers and their illegal businesses for huge amounts of money.

“We have dismissed 26 police officials from service after finding them to be connected with drug lords, while investigations are under way against more ‘black sheep’ in our force in order to put our house in order despite fierce resistance from influential families and sympathisers of both corrupt officials and drug dealers,” he said.

The DPO said the country had no factory for the ice drug, which was smuggled from Afghanistan in large quantities.

“We have information that the ice is smuggled from Afghanistan to trade cargo drugs in multiple ways. Now, we have devised a comprehensive strategy to effectively stop this drug inflow,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2024