The Gulshan-e-Iqbal Police on Monday claimed to have busted a network of notorious drug peddlers and arrested six suspects involved in supplying drugs to school, college and university students.
Station House Officer (SHO) Nasrullah Khan said a task had been assigned to him by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ghulam Azfar Mahesar of District East to crack down on the gang involved in supplying narcotics to youngsters in posh localities, especially at educational institutions.
In this regard, the SHO expanded his intelligence network. Acting on its information, police carried out intelligence-based raids in Distirct East and arrested gang leader Shakir, along with his five associates Nasir, Faizan, Hussain Shah, Nisar alias Haji and Huzaifa.
During the search of the suspects’ hideout, the cops seized four-and-a-half kilograms of hashish, 50 packets of heroin, four pistols and 15 cell phones.
Khan said the suspects used to sell drugs to students and residents of posh localities. The accused persons had earlier been arrested in similar cases, but they had been later released on bail. The gangsters were wanted in more than 30 cases lodged at different police stations in the city. During the initial interrogation, the suspects told the police that they had a 20-member group of young people, including students and women, who supplied drugs to students.
Inspector Nasrullah Khan said that interrogation from the suspects also revealed that they had hired sub-dealers who were youngsters residing in posh localities or studying in educational institutions there. According to contact details gathered from their cell phones, it was learnt that 50 per cent of sub-dealers were residents of posh localities and students of educational institutions there.
The modus operandi of the suspects was to make a person addicted to drugs by offering them free doses and then to ask for money which was at least Rs2,000 per packet, and those who failed to pay money for drugs were offered to become sub-dealers to contact people and sell drugs.
The investigations showed that most of drug addicts were O and A level students. When the families of the students were contacted, some of the families refused to accept that their children were addicted to drugs, but when their children were questioned by the police they accepted drug-intake and being addicted also.
A student of Mass Communications told the police: “One day, I was sitting with my friends and drinking alcohol when one of them offered me heroin. Soon after I smoked it I loved the drug and remained intoxicated for more than three hours. Later, I started vomiting and when I asked my friend about the reason he told me that this happens for the first time and I will get used to it. This is how I became addicted.”
But after that passing of a few months when he decided to quit the narcotic, it started weakening his body. To deal with continuous vomiting and other medical problems, the student said he used to take heroin and his body became normal. At this, he decided to go for medical treatment.
Khan requested the parents to keep an eye on their children’s activities and social gatherings. He also suggested that the parents should conduct a blood test of their children and check their cell phones randomly to ensure that their children were not linked with any drug mafia.