SWABI, April 12: Police destroyed poppy crop over 50 kanals in the second operation in mountainous Naranji region here on Tuesday. “We have accomplished the mission and now there is no standing poppy crop in the region,” said district coordination officer Abdul Jabbar Shah, when contacted by this correspondent.

The first operation was conducted on February 19 in the same region and according to police poppy over 144 kanals was destroyed then.

Officials said that FIRs had also been registered against 63 farmers and landowners, but only three of them could be arrested.

They said that information about the remaining poppy was provided by police and revenue department officials, who visited the region after the first operation.

An official said on condition of anonymity that new FIRs had been registered under the Narcotics Control Substance Act, 1997 against several people involved in poppy cultivation.

However, when officials of Kalu Khan police station were contacted they said the FIRs would be finalised against both the landowners and farmers after return of the deployed force.

The sources said that police should arrest the big landowners who forced their poverty-stricken farmers to cultivate poppy crop.

WHEELCHAIRS AID: Punjab Governor Latif Khosa has assured Kidmat-i-Mazoraan (KM), Swabi, of early provision of about 200 wheelchairs for special people of the district.

Fazal Dad, general secretary of the KM, told this correspondent that the governor talked to Baidar Khan, the KM’s president, on phone on Tuesday and assured him that the government would extend complete support to them for the welfare of special people.

Mr Fazal said that Mr Baidar had apprised the governor about the shortage of wheelchairs during a meeting of Pakistan Disabled Foundation in Islamabad on April 7.

He said that it was a welcome gesture from the Punjab governor at a time when parliamentarians of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa failed to provide sufficient facilities to the disabled people.