December 2, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 16, 1422

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MULTAN, Dec 1: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), Punjab, has seized a huge quantity of hashish and rounded up five ‘international’ smugglers from Multan.

Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, Punjab ANF commander Brig Riazullah Chib said that the force had got a tip that some gangsters of a notorious international racket of drug smugglers were to send a consignment of hashish to Holland via Portugal.

After learning that Multan would be used as ‘launching pad’, the ANF beefed up its strength here.

On Tuesday, ANF personnel led by Capt Shaukat raided a house in Multan city where five people were packing hashish. They were arrested and identified as Mian Idrees, Pervez Malik, Ahsan Pervez Sultan, Malik Abdul Rauf and Abdul Rehman. As much as 5.5 tons of hashish was recovered from their possession, he added.

The ANF commander said the seized hashish was of fine export quality having monetary value of Rs 25m in the local market and Rs300m in international.

He said the stock was brought in the three consignments to Multan from the tribal area of the NWFP through an oil-tanker. The vehicle was impounded on Saturday in the outskirts of Lahore. He said the seized hashish had to be smuggled to its destination through the Multan dryport along with cotton yarn.

Brig Chib said both Mian Idrees and Pervez Malik had equal share in the consignment. The duo, he added, had smuggled almost same quantity of hashish to a European destination three years ago.

He further told newsmen that Pervez Malik, a known underworld figure, was a shareholder in a Dubai-based chain of hotels called ‘Falcon hotels’. He said the ANF was trying to know the whereabouts of a foreigner who had recently visited Malik and his partners in Multan.

The Punjab ANF chief said the drugs business was an organised form of crime. The ANF was working with 250 personnel only in the Punjab having three stations at Lahore, Multan and Bahawalpur. He said the Bahawalpur station was being abandoned and instead the ANF would open its third station in Faisalabad.

Brig Chib said the conviction rate in cases investigated by Punjab ANF was more than 95 per cent. He said during the current calender year as many as 196 people had been convicted in 99 cases. Of the convicted, he further added, 11 were given capital punishment and 16 life imprisonment. According to the information gathered by this correspondent, alleged smuggler Mian Idrees started career as a refrigerator mechanic and with in no time he became a known businessman of the town.

He was managing director of a pesticides firm. He also dealt in cellular phones.

Former Multan deputy commissioner Maj Rao Shakeel Ahmed was said to be his partner in the pesticides business.

The NAB is currently interrogating Rao for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.