Police crackdown fails to curb drug trafficking

Sources say female drug traffickers supplying narcotics to addicts

CHAKWAL:

An intensification in the anti-narcotics crackdown by the local police has failed to bring the desired results as the practice of drug trade is constantly on an upward trajectory in Chakwal as well as its suburban areas.

Despite the destruction of drug dealers' hideouts in Mohalla Pir Bukhari, the city's biggest and most infamous drug-dealing neighbourhood, youths and drug addicts are seen taking refuge in the nook and corners.

The city police destroyed all the hideouts of the drug traffickers in light of the orders by the Chakwal DPO but the women drug traffickers are still supplying narcotics to the youthful and elder addicts at a price range between Rs300 to Rs500 for each token [a small quantity of a particular drug].

Sources said if the police wanted to get information on the drug-dealing women, they could round up a drug addict and interrogate them.

They said the drug gangs are still seen consuming narcotics in the early morning and late at night around the graves and corners of the local cemetery, particularly on the northern side of the Chakwal Press Club.

Serious public circles are of the opinion that while the police action is commendable in its place, the real problem lies with the drug peddlers—both men and women—who are supplying narcotics to the elderly and youthful addicts.

They said the issue is not only about the action, but there is a need to completely shut down the outlets that supply drugs to the addicts.

The dignitaries of Rawalpindi Road, Dhok Feroze, and Mohalla Rehmania demanded the Chakwal DPO that “the police should keep up their efforts until the societal ills that drive the younger generation towards destruction are uprooted.”

The locals have lauded the efforts of the DPO Chakwal and the SHO City Police Station for their extensive media campaign against the drug traffickers.

They said every other day, bodies of young and old drug addicts are picked up from the stronghold of drug trafficking, and many of them have been declared abandoned and buried without identification.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2023.