RAWALPINDI: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on Friday claimed to have arrested the alleged ringleader of drug suppliers to students of universities and youth from affluent background.

Brigadier Hammad Ahmed Dogar, the ANF director, said a large quantity of imported drugs was also recovered from the suspect.

Addressing a press conference at the ANF regional directorate in Humak Town, Brigadier Dogar said Waheed Ali, a resident of Dadu, worked as a government contractor before starting supplying drugs to university students.

He said the arrest of the alleged drug supplier came about after the ANF intelligence deployed special surveillance teams to unearth gangs involved in providing drugs to educational institutions, especially in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

He said Waheed was involved in supplying weed (marijuana) and LSD (imported drugs) stripes/blotters to the students.

The suspect was kept under surveillance for over three weeks and arrested along with 27 tokens of weed and 32 bottles of LSD, he added.

The foreign synthetic drugs were smuggled into the country through the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, another senior official of the ANF said.

He said the accused had been involved in drug supply for 18 months. He said the names of the students purchasing drugs had been forwarded to the universities and their parents.

Meanwhile, Interior Minster Nisar Ali Khan on Friday directed the city administration to enhance surveillance of educational institutions in Islamabad to check supply of drugs to students.

The minister directed the administration to launch a comprehensive campaign in Islamabad from Monday to save students from this menace.

Speaking to Dawn, deputy commissioner Islamabad retired Capt Mushtaq Ahmed said the administration would arrest the drug suppliers in collaboration with the ANF.

“We will also get services of ANF intelligence unit to arrest drug suppliers and their facilitators in canteens,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2017