Another addict dies on railway track due to cold

PESHAWAR: Another drug addict died near the railway track in the limits of the East Cantt Police Station on Monday, raising the number of addicts who died due to cold weather and other reasons in the last few weeks to six. A source said that Edhi Foundation officials shifted the body to the city morgue after it was recovered from the railway track near Shoba Bazaar. Earlier, five heroin and ice addicts were found dead in different parts of the city during the last few weeks. Hundreds of the drug addicts spend cold nights in the open on the railway track, roadsides or footpaths in different parts of the city.

The government had shifted many of them to a rehabilitation centre in the recent months but the authorities failed to rehabilitate such a large number of addicts in the provincial capital. The supply of drugs and the network of drug sellers in the urban areas are adding to the addicts in different cities of the country, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A police official said on Monday the issue is far more complex and intertwined than it looks on the surface. “Police FIRs against such addicts only remove them from the streets temporarily as they are either released on bail, simply fined or sometimes awarded short prison sentences after which they are back and even more undeterred,” the official elaborated.

The official added that many of the addicts are HCV and HIV infected patients and need medical safety procedures at the time of arrest so that the infection doesn’t spread to the handlers.

“We are in coordination with the Social Welfare Department for their rehabilitation and are working to arrest the suppliers of heroin both inside Peshawar and also those coming from Khyber district side. There is a shortage of beds in rehabilitation centres and other technical/legal formalities involved but were are trying to work out a solution,” said the official.

WHO donates ultrasound machine to KTH

The World Health Organisation (WHO) provincial head DrSaeed Akbar has handed over a portable ultrasound machine to the Radiology Department of Khyber Teaching Hospital.

Prof Dr Hina Gul, Hospital Director, Dr Zafar Afridi, Medical Director Prof Dr Irshad Ahmed, Media Manager Farhad Khan and Supply Chain Manager Ali Waqas were also present in the handover ceremony. The machine will be utilised in the A &E Department. Hospital Director Dr Zafar Afridi and Medical Director Prof Dr Irshad Ahmed thanked the WHO for helping the hospital.