April 11, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1427

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KOHAT, April 10: The Darra Adamkhel Qaumi Tehrik demolished a den run by traffickers and car lifters belonging to a family settled in a German town. However, people concerned over the situation in the area have demanded serious efforts by the authorities concerned to curb illegal businesses and to arrest professional kidnappers harboured by tribes.

Activists led by Syed Wazir Afridi, the chief of Qaumi Tehrik, marched to the den run by a heroin seller and his two sons on Sunday. They were chanting religious slogans.

Thousands of shopkeepers in the main arms and ammunition bazaar closed their shops to express solidarity with the Qaumi Tehrik.

After a brief speech by Syed Wazir, the protesters demolished the den. However, they spared more than 50 shops where hashish, pen pistols, heroin, counterfeit currency, forged educational certificates and bogus licenses were being sold openly to buyers from various parts of the country.

It may be mentioned that more than a dozen shops located on the old Indus Highway display boards with “fine quality drugs are available here” written on them to attract buyers. All kinds of weapons, even knives and daggers, are on display. The owners of the shops are reported to have permits that they get from the administration with the help of local elders and on payment of a fixed amount of monthly commission to the levy force and the maliks.

A few days back, this correspondent had asked the deputy administrator of Darra Adamkhel about these decade-old shops. He said: “I have not seen any such shop during my one-year tenure in the area.”

It may also be mentioned that a gang of criminals involved in the murder of Mahabat Khan and Waheedullah, former employees of the Pakistan Tobacco Company, are yet to be arrested. Both were kidnapped from the Adizai village in Mattani on May 21, 2005, and killed on June 13, 2005.

An official confirmed that the accused who had remained underground for some time were now moving freely in Dara Adamkhel.