Crime Diary: Ice becomes 2nd biggest challenge to KP law-enforcers

PESHAWAR: Ice or meth has become the second biggest threat to law and order in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, only after terrorism, as the synthetic drug is believed to be a major factor behind the manifold increase in violent crimes in society.

There used to be hardly a few addicts of ice in KP till 2017. The number of addicts and their involvement in violent crimes has witnessed an increase every year since 2018.Despite continuous actions against the mafias involved, the number of addicts is still on the rise not only in Peshawar and KP but all the major cities of the country.

The increasing number of ice users is behind most of the cases of snatching, robberies, theft and violence during street crimes, making ice the second biggest threat to law and order in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and rest of the country only after terrorism.

Recently, the KP government termed the eradication of drugs as one of the major challenges faced by the province and announced operations against the mafias as well as rehabilitation of the addicts.

Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur while chairing a meeting set up a special task force against narcotics, especially ice, and directed police and all the concerned departments to continuously conduct aggressive operations against the mafias involved in manufacturing, smuggling and sale of drugs. He said the government has realized that ice is more dangerous than other drugs.

Along with aggressive operations after proper intelligence gathering against the mafias, introducing stricter laws to award due punishments to the ice dealers from the courts are equally important to put culprits behind bars for a longer period.

A police official said many of them were held for the second and third time for committing the crime repeatedly soon after they are released from jails within a few months.

An official said police had written to the government on several occasions in the past that strict laws need to be introduced so those arrested by the police get due punishments.“Besides, there needs to be a system to keep a check on the transportation of raw material being used in the manufacturing of ice. This synthetic drug can be manufactured anywhere from some raw material used in the manufacturing of medicines,” a source said.

On the other hand, police, Excise, Narcotics Control and other forces need to conduct effective operations against the mafias instead of mere eye wash. Mostly these forces focus on showing an increased number of arrests to the media and government and even include those addicts held with few grams of substance, presenting them as dealers.

From the situation in the last many years, one presumes there are several gangs and individuals in the urban, suburban and rural areas of the country involved in manufacturing, smuggling and sale of ice and other drugs.

The target of some of the gangs are the youth and they are selling drugs in different shapes in the vicinity of the educational institutions. The easy availability of this synthetic drug that can be manufactured anywhere has resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number of addicts, including youth and even teenagers in the last few years.

Young boys, and in some cases girls, under the influence of drugs were seen in videos that went viral on social media. Authorities of some universities in other provinces recently said they have written to the concerned departments after the gangs targeted students.

In Peshawar, a large number of addicts including women and children can be seen on footpaths and roadside just opposite Karkhano, Hayatabad, Faqirabad, GT Road, Kohat Road-Ring Road Chowk, Jaba Sohail, Dir Colony, Dilzak Road, Charsadda Road and many other areas.

The officials of the KP Police recently informed that only in Peshawar 4726 cases have been lodged and 5289 accused involved in drug business have been arrested in operations against the mafias during the first five months of 2024.

According to these officials 177 kilograms of ice, 80 Kgs of heroin and 866 kgs of hashish were recovered in operations during the last five months. About 30 kgs of ice, 162 kgs of hashish and 8kgs of heroin were recovered only during the last two weeks.

If such a high figure is true, the situation seems more alarming for the government, police, Excise and Narcotics Control and Anti-Narcotics Force. Rounding up thousands of people involved in the drug business in a single city is something huge. These should not include those addicts held with few grams of hashish.

A number of operations in the past failed only after the officials in the field focused more on showing an increased number of arrests to the bosses and added false cases to the list instead of breaking the real network through better intelligence gathering and effective operations. Most of the district police officers and the station house officers were only interested in showing better statistics to the government and media instead of breaking the network.

For effective operations, intelligence collection is more important about the factories and dealers of ice and heroin in urban, suburban and rural areas before planning proper action against the mafias and facilitators involved in the supply and sale of drugs. Special focus should be on actions against those involved in the supply of ice, heroin and hashish to the youth in educational institutions and hostels.