MIANWALI, Nov 2: Back in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, it forced hundreds of thousands of Afghans to migrate to Pakistan. With these immigrants, came lethal weapons, drugs and smuggled electronics. Pakistan settled the influx in several camps and here, a refugee camp was established at Kot Chandna, 30 kilometres from Mianwali.

The camp still exists but a good number of its inhabitants has been repatriated after the collapse of Taliban in 2001. A small number of immigrants live inside the camp while mostly have settled in different places in the district.

The present population of the immigrants mainly consists of Pakistan-born Afghans and they are reluctant to go back to Afghanistan as they have settled and groomed their businesses here making huge profits. They trade from grocery to guns besides supplying drugs.

Before the Afghan influx, a majority of the local population loved tribal system and kept arms. But the trend was not overwhelming. With the arrival of the immigrants, the district became a hub of drugs, lethal weapons and smuggled foreign goods. The foreign guests impelled many local hosts to invest their resources into the illegal trade.

The first causality of immigrants’ illegal activities was youngsters who got addicted to heroin. The district became a gateway to the flow of drugs down the country.

Towns like Mooch, Kamar Mushani, Daudkhel and Shehbazkhel serve as wholesale markets of drug and supply the commodity to other parts of the country.

As Daudkhel is eight kilometres from the Kot Chandna camp, drug peddlers made this town a testing laboratory and supplied drugs to the youngsters. Now, almost half of the youths of the town, both males and females, are heroin addicts. Drug peddlers found winds in their favour as there are no healthy sports activities at local educational institutions and besides that a large number of youngsters are jobless. Though the town is contiguous to Iskandarabad, an industrial area, the locals of Daudkhel have always been denied jobs there.

Earlier, the town was known for its brain fertility as it was home to internationally renowned celebrities like Harcharan Chawla (film writer and intellectual), Malik Manzoor Hussain Manzoor (literary figure), Zafar Khan Niazi (broadcaster), SP Khan Khalas Khan Niazi (retd), Balochistan DIG Rehmatullah Khan Niazi and Prof Munwar Ali Malik (educationist).

Local journalist Hafeezullah says that almost each family in the town has at least one of its members heroin addict. He revealed that youth death rate due to addiction was higher than any other place in the country.

People complain the police have hands in gloves with drug traffickers and do nothing to eradicate the menace except arresting some poor addicts occasionally.

They say if the government does not take any action, the whole district will become Daudkhel.