Influential liquor, drug mafia active in capital

Islamabad
The influential liquor and drug mafia, active in the federal capital, keeps running its illegal trade extensively without facing any legal obstacle for the reason of ineffective, weak and meek strategy, said a group of operational police officers and people engaged in investigation of drug and liquor cases.
“There are specific locations in and around the federal capital which are marked as markets of drugs and liquor,” they said. They said that villages on the outskirts of Islamabad, including Athal, Doray and Pind Parian, are the locations where drugs are openly sold like food items. One can find tens of addicts in these villages. On an average, one addict expires every week due to extensively inhaling or smoking drugs, but no one cares.
They said that young people are forced into drug addiction. “Garda, which provides more powerful intoxication, is popular among young girls of rich families,” they maintained.
‘Garda’ is much more inebriated than ‘hashish’, a drug vendor said on anonymity. He said, “Garda is popular among young girls and boys, especially students of universities and colleges.” He added, “We mix chemicals in ‘garda’ to increase intoxication of ‘hashish’.” The drug dealers multiply the quantity of ‘hashish’ by mixing chemicals in ‘garda’, he maintained. He agreed that the chemicals added in ‘garda’ were injurious to health.
The liquor mafia, active in Islamabad, has control over law-enforcers and for it they use their political and administrative connections, sources said. According to sources, “The liquor mafia provides service to their permanent customers at their doorsteps through their employed bootleggers.” A stunning disclosure was that the liquor dealing racketeers, sometimes, hire uniformed cops for transportation of liquor to their permanent customers.
The drug barons, based in Athal village, are very influential, as they have close links with major political

parties. They create connections with the ruling parties to pressurise police and other law- enforcement agencies, said sources, quoting an intelligence agency report. According to sources, drug barons have started using political connections for their survival after police initiated a ruthless campaign against drug dealers and arrested dozens of suspects from the village.
Athal, located on the outskirts of the federal capital territory, went under the dominance of drug mafia after authorities divided the village into two parts and gave them under the control of two police stations, Bhara Kahu and Banigala. The western part of the ‘mafia town’ was given under the control of Banigala and the eastern part to the Bhara Kahu police stations, making the operation against the mafia an impossible task for police.
“Over 50% of the total population of Athal, including women and children, are involved in drug trade. No policeman has dared to enter into the 'base-camp' to hunt the drug-dealing people down,” claimed the report.
The report said the drug racketeers bribe police officials of different police stations where they ran their drug business, adding that cops also come to collect their monthlies.
The drug dealers keep roaming at specific points on both sides of the Simly Dam Road, to sell drugs to motorcycle and cars riders. They provide different kinds of narcotics to the drug addicts, including young students and women, and provide drugs to customers on demand within seconds, said sources, quoting the report.
“The drug outlets are established as vegetable shops, general stores and hotels, from where permanent customers usually buy the required drugs directly,” locals claimed.
Doray and Pind Parian have regained their ‘status’ as the drug generating hubs of the federal capital. In September 2013, the Islamabad Police, after killing of two cops by drug barons, conducted a grand operation in those villages and swept away those embroiled in the drug trade, but gradually, it has become a base-camp of drug mafia where drug trade was openly run under the protection of police, the report said.