February 25, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 26, 1427

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QUETTA, Feb 24: A drug trafficker was killed and another was injured in a heavy exchange of fire with Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) personnel in the Panjgur area. “We seized over one metric ton of opium after firefight with smugglers,” Brigadier Anwarul Haq, Regional Director of the ANF, Balochistan, told Dawn on Thursday.

Acting on information about smuggling of a huge quantity of drugs, an ANF team raided an area close to the Pak-Iran border in Panjgur district. Seeing ANF personnel, the traffickers opened fire with heavy weapons.

In the ensuing exchange of fire, two traffickers, Jamil Ahmed and Irshad Ahmed, were injured. They were arrested by the ANF personnel. Jamil succumbed to his injuries after some time while Irshad was taken to a hospital.

ANF sources said that the other traffickers managed to escape leaving their drug consignment behind. However, when the ANF personnel were returning to their base they were ambushed by unidentified men.

“Two of our soldiers were injured in the ambush carried out by the accomplices of the traffickers,” the sources said.

They said that the opium consignment had been smuggled into Pakistan from Afghanistan.