KP Police share list of 900 smugglers with govt, Customs

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police have prepared a consolidated list of over 900 smugglers and shared it with the provincial government and Customs Department during its drive against smuggling, an official told The News.

Officials said that the police during anti-smuggling operations seized goods worth Rs843.9 million and arrested 589 smugglers during the current year.

“Operations against smugglers have been accelerated and only during nine months goods worth Rs843 million were seized. Besides, more goods worth Rs112.26 million were seized and handed over to Customs under Covid-19 anti-smuggling Ordinance 2020. A total of 589 persons were arrested during the drive,” Inspector General of Police Sanaullah Abbasi told The News. He added the seized goods included food items like wheat, tea, tobacco, textiles, cooking oil, vehicles, automobile spare parts, engine oil and electronics. “Directives have been issued to police officers at district/division level for real-time communication with departments concerned through WhatsApp and joint control rooms. Unfrequented routes are identified and targeted for interception of smuggled goods. The police are supporting Customs in raiding dumping places of smuggled goods,” said the IGP. The official added a list of 900 people involved in smuggling had been prepared and shared with the government, Customs and other departments concerned. The provincial police chief said that police had accelerated actions against drug sellers.

He maintained that the prevalence of drugs led to widespread domestic abuse and crime. “There is hard evidence to show use of drugs like hashish, heroin by criminals prior to the commission of heinous crimes in most cases,” he added. According to an estimate, Pakistan has over 860,000 heroin and 400,000 opium and hashish users. “We have launched an intensive province-wide anti-narcotics campaign against poppy eradication,” said Sanaullah Abbasi. The IGP said due to these operations the ratio of general crime especially crime against property, including burglary, theft, dacoity and robbery had decreased. He said around 104 acres of poppy crops were destroyed in KP in the last nine months. During the first nine months of 2020, the IGP added the KP police arrested more than 10741 drug dealers. “This time police have also gone after the big drug dealers and supply chains. The seriousness of the campaign is evident not only from the quantity of hauled drugs but also the resistance faced by police. Over 28 armed encounters took place during action against narcotics, resulting in 25 fatalities,” said Sanaullah Abbasi.

He added over 10,000 FIRs had been registered against drug dealers and a total of 19134 kilogram hashish, heroin, opium and ice had been recovered.