Sixteen, including five drug pushers, held

Capital police recover stolen cell phones from two alleged muggers

ISLAMABAD: At least 16 suspects, including five drug pushers, were arrested from various areas of the federal capital, the Islamabad Police claimed on Wednesday. Drugs, liquor, snatched mobile phones, gambling money and weapons were also recovered from their possession, officers said.

Amidst a lockdown, officials said that they had renewed their efforts to curb the illegal sale of liquor and narcotics, besides controlling street crimes. In this regard, Operations DIG Waqaruddin Syed conducted special meetings with the heads of police stations and directed them to accelerate their efforts against anti-social elements.

Subsequently, Industrial-Area SP Zubair Ahmed Shaikh constituted a team to raid an illegal distillery in the area.

This team, under the supervision of SDPO Zohaib Nusrullah Ranjaha and including I-Area police station SHO Sub-Inspector Khurram Shahzad, raided a house in Sector H-9 and arrested Ishq Masih. As many as 102 bottles of liquor were allegedly recovered from his possession. A police squad also arrested Faisal Masih and recovered 12 bottles of liquor from him. The suspects were allegedly selling homebrewed liquor by filling them in the bottles of a licenced brewery.

Rural SP Malik Naeem Iqbal constituted a team under the supervision of Koral SDPO Qasim Khan Niazi and including Koral police station SHO Ishtiaq Shah, which arrested two suspects, identified as Hamad Raza and Zeshan. Around 3,178 kilogrammes of hashish were allegedly recovered from their possession.

Saddar SP Omer Khan constituted a team under the supervision of Margalla SDPO Malik Abid Ikram and including Karachi Company police station SHO Saleem Raza, ASI Haider Shah along with others.

They arrested two alleged muggers, identified as Arsl William and Sheryar. As many as nine snatched mobile phones and two pistols were recovered from them.

Meanwhile, Sihala police team, under the supervision of SHO Inspector Asjad Mehmood, Sub-Inspector Adeel Shokat, along with others, conducted a raid in Rawat and arrested three gamblers along with stake money and gambling tools from their possession.

The Bhara Kahu police arrested Zariab for carrying a knife.

The Karachi company police arrested Haseeb and Junaid and recovered kites from them. The Sabzi Mandi police arrested Aamir Ullah and recovered 170 grammes of hashish from him. Khanna police arrested Imtiaz Iqbal and recovered a 30 bore pistol from him.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2020.