FAISALABAD: The overt sale of drugs at a place in Warispura is not a problem only for the customers (addicts) but also for people residing nearby.

Scores of addicts are made to queue up for their turn twice a day — in the morning and evening — to buy ‘token’ which is a code name for heroin.

A resident of Warispura this correspondent talked to said the residents had approached police and the district government officials with a written application for action against the drug pedlars but the Batala Colony police appeared reluctant to take action. He said the lives of youngsters could be ruined because of the open sale of drugs in the area.

Also read: Gang of women drug peddlers busted

Addicts have ‘safe places’ elsewhere in the city, like roads, markets and streets. Drains constructed on roads help them take shelter in sizzling summer as they remove their covers and go about their business without check.

An addict, Nasim, said he had been buying ‘token’ in the area for the last three weeks. He said the drug was available in the morning and evening.

“You cannot get drug without standing in a queue. A man carrying a club takes rounds to line them up to facilitate the process,” he said.

Nasim said he did not fear police because they could not arrest the addicts. “And the reason is that once arrested, the addicts get frustrated and annoyed and create scenes in the lockups to get their lust fulfilled. At times police have to arrange ‘tokens’ for the addicts to avert an ugly incident,” he claimed.

During a visit to the area, this correspondent saw a woman injecting a drug into her leg through a syringe. She had no qualms about killing herself with daily dose of the narcotic. “We are fellows doing the same thing to get rid of miseries,” said the addict who also believed that all such businesses had police blessings.

A resident of Yasir Town said people had requested police to crack down on the ‘Dogar gang’ of drug pedlars but to no avail. Instead of protecting the masses and law-abiding citizens, he said, police seemed to be helping the gangsters.

“An application was moved to police by the residents of the area for action against the Dogar gang but nothing has been done,” he alleged.

One can find a number of addicts sitting along the boundary wall of a girls college on Eidgah Road just a few meters from the Kotwali police station.

An Awami Colony No 2 resident said one could see a family selling drugs openly after greasing the palms of the Gulberg police. He said most of the time the addicts used drugs sitting outside people’s residences.

City Police Officer Afzaal Kausar told Dawn that a massive crackdown would be launched against the drug pushers soon as Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had asked Regional Police Officer Ahsan Tufail to submit a report and take stern action against them.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2015

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