Officials vow to make KP drug-free

PESHAWAR: Vowing to make Khyber Pakhtunkhwa drug-free, officials on Friday said they arrested over 15,000 drug dealers in operations against ice and other drugs during the year 2020.

“The KP police have arrested 15,566 drug dealers from across the province, including the newly merged districts and around 28 armed encounters also took place with the drug dealers, resulting in 25 fatalities,” Inspector General of Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sanaullah Abbasi told The News. The police chief said the seriousness of the campaign is evident from the quantity of the drugs seized and also from the resistance faced by the police.

“As many as 14,804 cases were registered and a total of 13411.403kg narcotics were recovered during the period,” Abbasi said.

The drugs seized included 557.943kg heroine, 11081.542kg hashish, 920.159kg opium, 851.759kg ice and 20587 bottles of liquor. He said the police had also observed that drugs were intimately connected with the security of society and their use is directly proportional to domestic abuse and rampant crime.

“Due to these operations against drug dealers, the ratio of crime, especially crime against property including burglary, theft, dacoity, and robbery, has decreased by almost 50 percent during the current year,” said Sanaullah Abbasi. A total of 6,514 drug dealers were convicted by the courts after being arrested from different parts of KP. Police officials believe the prosecution and conviction of drug peddlers are difficult in the criminal justice system in drug cases.

According to the cops, the low rate of conviction is due to a lack of complainants and witnesses. But still, the officials believe, the conviction rate in drug cases is high as compared to other criminal cases. The use of drugs, especially ice, has reached an alarming level among the people in KP and the rest of Pakistan in the last many years. A number of students as well as women have also got addicted to ice and other drugs due to easy availability in cities. There are many case studies in which criminals have used drugs like hashish, heroin, etc, prior to commission of heinous crime. Besides, the analysis of most of war economy of armed conflicts and civil wars clearly shows organized illegal drug trade fuelling these wars. Studies by the police force hinted at the war in Afghanistan had multiple effects on the traditional growth patterns of poppy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that has been cultivating the crop for domestic consumption of hashish, opium and for medical purposes. The cultivation boomed to fuel the war and profits multiplied as the production established linkages with the global drug trade.

The cultivation of poppy dropped in KP and erstwhile Fata in recent years. The illegal cultivation of poppy, however, in pockets in far-flung and remote valleys of KP continued.