Narcotics being openly sold in limits of 30 police stations

Karachi police chief Dr Amir Shaikh has ordered all the three zonal police chiefs of the city to take action against narcotic dens in their respective areas and arrest those who are running and patronising them.

The Karachi AIG issued the directives to Zone South DIG Javed Alam Odho, Zone West DIG Khadim Hussain Rind and Zone East DIG Amir Farooqi in a letter, in which he also mentioned that a nexus exists between the drug mafias and street criminals due to which street crimes are on the rise in the city.

“It is brought to your kind notice that narcotics dens are being run in your area of responsibility, which is not only bringing bad name for police department but also resulting in increase of street crime,” the letter reads. It also tells that there is a strong nexus between narcotics dealers and criminal elements in the city.

“This menace [narcotics] has also penetrated into our educational institutions. It has been found that both men and women are using various psychoactive substances in colleges and universities. In this manner, narcotics are destroying our society and youth, particularly,” the letter reads.

The Karachi police chief directed the zonal police chiefs to start crackdown against all the narcotics dens and take stern legal action against criminal elements who were operating them. AIG Shaikh also sought progress reports from the zonal police chiefs within one month in this regard.

Black sheep in police

The police department has occasionally been blamed for patronising organised crimes in the city, particularly narcotics dens. Several actions have been taken in the past against black sheep in the department, however, it is still being alleged that various narcotics dealers are operating in the city in connivance with police officials.

Speaking to The News, senior police officials admitted that some members of the police department were involved in organised crimes in the city. “There is certainly police connivance in every organised crime like drugs, gambling, prostitution etc,” admitted the Zone East police chief. “We have to break that nexus. We are identifying black sheep in our ranks and taking action against them,” claimed DIG Farooqi.

Whether organised crimes thrive in an area or they are curbed, it is the SHO of the police station concerned who is deemed mostly responsible for either of the situations.

The city police chief has prepared a list of 30 police stations of the city, in the limits of which narcotics are being openly sold. The police stations include Mehmoodabad, Jackson, Civil Lines, Kalakot, Ibrahim Hyderi, Nazimabad, Sharae Noor Jahan, Jamshed Quarters, Landhi, Malir City, Sacchal, Manghopir, Aziz Bhatti, PIB Colony, Zaman Town, Frere, Defence, Baloch Colony, Malir Cantt, Site Super Highway, Gulshan-e-Maymar, Docks, Pirabad, Madina Colony, Sohrab Goth, Mominabad, Saudabad, Sharafi Goth, Pak Colony and Quaidabad police stations.

“No one has the courage to run organised criminal activities without support of the SHO,” admitted PIB Colony SHO Amir Azam whose police station is present on the list. However, he denied that narcotics dens were openly running in his area.

“In my area, there is not a single major narcotics den as top drug peddlers, Darvesh and Ahmed Ali Magsi, have gone into hiding since three years after the police and Rangers launched crackdown against them,” SHO Azam said.

However, some drug dealers term such actions as so-called crackdowns through which policemen earn more money or commission. “The police officials, be them SHOs or DIGs, have a habit of initiating actions against us from time to time and we remain prepared for it,” said a drug dealer.

“Such actions are not crackdowns but mere eyewash. We go underground for a while and then resurface. We have been facing such farcical actions since the last 25 years. Nothing is achieved out of them except that drugs prices get higher as the policemen want their share increased every time,” the drug peddler added.

The Karachi AIG’s letter to the zonal chiefs is the second recent major attempt by the police department to deal with drug mafias as they have a direct connection with the street crime in the city. Earlier, the city police chief had approached the provincial home department to fix a Rs1 million head money on the arrest of five key drug dealers in Karachi.