Two ‘drug traffickers’ killed in Quetta encounter

QUETTA:

In yet another incident, two alleged drug traffickers were killed in a police encounter in the jurisdiction of Khaliqabad Shaheed police station in Quetta on Saturday.

Police also arrested one drug trafficker alive after an exchange of fire, a police official told The Express Tribune.

He requested anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Police claimed they conducted a raid in the Bhosa Mandi area of Eastern Bypass Quetta. During the raid, the accused opened fire on police instead of surrendering and policemen quickly retaliated. As a result of return fire by police, two drug traffickers were killed, the police official claimed.

The slain traffickers have been identified as Fida Muhammad and Habibullah whose bodies were taken into custody and sent to autopsy. Police also recovered narcotics from the spot.

The family members of the deceased ‘smugglers’ staged a protest demonstration against the incident and demanded a probe into the encounter.

They demanded of the high-ups to take notice of the so called encounter and thoroughly probe into the incident as there were no criminal cases against them.

The protesters later peacefully dispersed when the district administration assured them that an inquiry would be conducted into the encounter to verify the police claims.

So far, there has been no formal statement on behalf of the Balochistan police.

It may be mentioned here that Quetta police have launched a crackdown against drug traffickers and narcotics smugglers. Police backed by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had also killed eight drug traffickers in Quetta’s main Nullah almost two months back.

For the first time, the main nullah, which snakes through the city posh and high security zone has been cleared from the drug addicts and drug traffickers.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2022.