Force Commander Anti Narcotics Force (ANF), Peshawar Brigadier Mohammad Najmul Hassan Jameel on Tuesday informed that poppy crop cultivated over 5,400 acres in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) would be destroyed. Giving details of poppy eradication programme 2005 at a press conference here, the Commander ANF said with determination that the entire crop sown during the current season would be destroyed by using different modes to motivate the growers for voluntary destruction.
He said remote mountainous Tirah valley of Khyber Agency topped the list of poppy growing areas where it has been cultivated at 3,393 acres of land.
The political administration arrested 46 persons in similar number of registered cases in Khyber Agency. In Mohmand Agency, he said, it was grown on 905 acres and in Bajaur Agency the grower had sown poppy on 500 acres and also arrested 31 tribesmen in this connection. The poppy cultivation in Kurram agency and Haripur district is nil, he added.
In tribal area Kala Dhaka of Mansehra district, he said, poppy has been cultivated at 630 acres of land whereas in Dir upper and Dir lower districts it has been sown on 40 and six acres respectively.
He further informed that in upper Dir district, the administration destroyed poppy on 23 acres and registered 35 cases against the growers wherein 16 arrests have also been made.
In Dir lower district, four cases have been registered and four arrested for growing poppy in their fields. In Swabi district, he said, it has been grown on four acres and destroyed on one acre by the law enforcers.
He further informed that in non-traditional areas, it has been sown on 533 acres of land and so far the respective administrations destroyed on 50 acres.
In Defacto tribal areas of Peshawar and Charsadda districts, including Prang Ghar, poppy has been grown on 400 acres.
Brigadier Najmul Hassan told that during the year 2004, ANF NWFP had registered 66 seizure cases and arrested 100 persons involved in different crimes.
The seizure resulted in 68,900 kg heroin, 57,650 kg opium, and 14,858 kg hashish. According to report 450 grams of Amphetamine, 115 kg poppy straw and large number of arms and ammunition and 31vehicles were seized in 2004, he added.
Giving details of the arrested persons in 2004, it included 97 Pakistanis, one Afghan national, two foreigners and eight proclaimed offenders. Of the total registered 66 cases, he said, five had been convicted and eight cases were under investigation.
He said the ANF frozen total assets of Rs 259.794 million in 2004 out of which the total value of forfeited asset was about Rs 200 million. He recalled that in 2002-03, poppy was sown on 9,563 acres of which 4,679 was destroyed and in 2003-04, it was grown on 8,962 acres of land and destroyed on 6,479 acres.
The force commander ANF said, his force successfully completed Haj operation as a total of 19,500 pilgrims were airlifted through 72 special flights that were subjected to thorough search by the ANF staff.
This effort paid off well with no incident of drug trafficking at the terminal airport Jeddah was reported, he said.
In reply to a question, Brigadier Najmul Hassan said, conviction rate of ANF was 90 percent and added that the force did not lay hand on the accused without solid evidence.
He said, accused directly involved in the narcotics business were charged in the case. He clarified that the ANF did not involve in minor seizure and in fact dealt in major cases.
He said the ANF also carried out different activities to motivate the people about the dangerous effects of narcotics and said that potential lot amongst the drug addicts was picked for treatment by the force.
He argued that in most of the cases youth in search of curiosity and personal inquisitive about the drugs fell victims to drug addiction. He said the force also established 22 pair pressure groups and each group comprises 10 members, which visited the drug affected in their areas. He said the group has yielded extremely positive results.
To a question, he said the force has the budget of 140 patients for treatment and added that registration of drug addicts had been started in Swabi, Charsadda, Dir and Swat districts.
Comments
Comments are closed.