IGP says poppy cultivation to be eliminated

KALAYA: Inspector General of Police Sanaullah Abbasi said on Thursday poppy cultivation and drug dealing are crimes under the law, adding these practices would be curbed with full force.

The provincial police chief said this while talking to the office-bearers of the Orakzai Press Club at his office. The club president Saleh Din Orakzai led the delegation whose members included Anwar Orakzai, Syed Mohsin Raza Sherazi, Muhammad Ismail, Asmatullah and Syed Adnan. The KP police chief urged the tribesmen to grow other crops such as wheat, flour and go for fruit gardening. He said poppy cultivation would be eliminated at all costs as per national and international commitments. Talking of the police force status in the merged areas, Sanaullah Abbasi said 80 per cent of Khassadars and Levies Force men had been merged into the force and the rest would be amalgamated soon.

The police chief said the policing in the merged districts and fencing of the Afghan border by the army had led to a relative peace therein.