77 dealers held in operation against ice-sellers

PESHAWAR: The police during separate actions across the provincial capital arrested 77 alleged ice dealers and recovered over five kilograms of synthetic drug from them.

“Actions were carried out across Peshawar during which 77 ice dealers were arrested. The police also recovered 5.5 kilograms of ice from the held dealers,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Zahoor Afridi told reporters on Saturday. He added that police have launched a crackdown on all those producing, smuggling and selling ice and other drugs.

He said different teams of the police headed by the respective SP were carrying out regular operations in the city.

“More actions have been taken in areas in the vicinity of the educational institutions and hostels,” said the official.

Police said five dealers were arrested and two kilograms of ice were recovered during actions near a private university on Ring Road. The other actions were carried out in different areas of the Cantonment, City, Rural and Saddar circles.

Afridi said apart from operations, police have been conducting seminars and other activities in educational institutions and public places to create awareness among the people regarding the menace. He said every member of the society should play his role against the drugs, especially ice.

The Peshawar police had launched a special ‘Ice-Free Peshawar’ drive to go after the users and sellers across the provincial capital. There are a number of complaints about the increase in use of the synthetic drug that is called ice, party drug, crystal meth or methamphetamine in different places. The number ice addicts has alarmingly increased in Peshawar and other parts of the country.

A few deaths under the influence of ice or due to its excessive use were also reported in recent months. Those who died of the drug included young females as there are reports that a large number of youth, including students of universities and colleges have become addicted to it.

“We have launched an ‘Ice-Free Peshawar’ campaign and constituted special teams in all the divisions under the respective SP to go after the smugglers and dealers in their areas.

Besides, the provincial government is being requested to pursue the passage of an act from the assembly against the life-threatening drug to be able to impose stricter punishments for the users and the sellers,” said another police officer.

The official said more needs to be done to tackle this issue in an organised manner.

“We are working on development of intelligence network for identification of ice manufacturers sellers, distributes and peddlers at the police station level with updated lists.

Besides, we are doing categorisation of manufacturers, sellers, distributers and peddlers accordingly and creating a data bank of the entire network to trace origins and roots of their business,” the official added.