By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
KHYBER: The police have unearthed close links and coordination between outlawed, militant outfits and drug smugglers after police launched a crackdown here in the past few weeks, police officials said.
Officials of the Shahkas police centre, Jamrud and Bara police stations told this scribe on condition of anonymity that the banned militant organizations Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) began “taxing” drug smugglers in parts of Tirah valley and down in Khyber district. This surfaced after putting up checkpoints to monitor their movement, besides extorting money from drug dealers in Wazir Dhand and Shah Kas markets in the Jamrud area for their activities.
They said some police officials, who patronized illegal drug business in Wazir Dhand markets, were also on the extortion list of militant groups and that they would regularly receive calls from militants to claim their share of the ill-gotten money.
Officials said the police had terminated the services of 26 police officials in the recent past, while another 15-20 were being probed for their alleged connections with drug smugglers and dealers.
DPO had shared an audio tap with this correspondent a week ago in which an alleged police subinspector from Jamrud was talking to a drugs dealer in Punjab. The accused police officer, according to DPO Khyber Salim Abbas Kulachi, the police was found guilty in connection with drug traffickers and dealers and was put under probe. He said zero tolerance policy had been adopted against social evils, especially drug dealers and traffickers in District Khyber.
