Narcotics worth Rs1.71b, weapons found at cop’s residence

Hashish, opium, liquour, rifles seized while police inspector on the run

HYDRABAD:

Narcotics, estimated to be worth around Rs1.71 billion were recovered in a raid at the residence of a police inspector in Mirpurkhas in the wee hours of Tuesday. The raid was conducted by the Anti-Narcotics Force and the Customs department at Inspector Kunwar Singh's residence in Gulberg Town in the remits of Town Police Station.

According to the FIR lodged at ANF Hyderabad on the complaint of Inspector Naeem Khan, 496 kilogrammes of hashish, 24kg opium, imported liquor and weapons, including two pistols, two rifles and a repeater as well as bullets were seized from Singh's house.

The policeman escaped the arrest in Mirpurkhas after which his son's house in Hyderabad was also raided later on Tuesday. But Singh was not found there either.

Read: 15 suspects rounded up, drugs, arms recovered

Sindh IGP Mushtaq Mahar took notice of the raid and Mirpurkhas DIG Zulfiqar Mahar has assigned the inquiry to Tharparkar SSP Hassan Sardar Niazi.

"The involvement of a police officer in drug trafficking has created a bad name for the police," reads the inquiry letter. It noted that hashish, opium, liquor, currency and weapons were found.

The terms of reference of the inquiry include ascertaining the role and involvement of Singh and his police staff including cops or private gunmen as well as his network. "To ascertain involvement of other local policemen associated with him in sale, purchase and dumping of narcotics items and illicit arms and to fix the responsibility."

The Tharparkar SSP will also have to trace and identify other people involved in the drug racket with Singh. He has been allowed to co-opt any police officer from the Mirpurkhas range.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2021.