KARACHI: Police on Monday claimed to have arrested six members of a gang which supplied drugs to students in the metropolis.

The Gulshan-i-Iqbal police arrested Shakir, Nasir, Faizan, Husain Shah, Nisar alias Haji and Huzaifa and seized over four kilograms of hashish, 50 packets of heroin, four pistols and 15 mobile phones from them, SSP East Ghulam Azfar Mahesar told a press conference.

He said that Shakir was the ringleader of the gang and the held suspects were also drug addicts.

“This gang provided drugs to students of schools, colleges and universities and children belonging to affluent families in the city,” the SSP said, adding that some women were also members of the gang, which comprised of around 20 members.

Some of the held suspects were also arrested in the past but got released on bail. There were at least 30 cases registered against them at different police stations, he said.

“This gang had developed a big network, which also used secret code words for supply of drugs on various campuses,” he said.

Karachi police chief has ordered an inquiry into custodial death of labour leader

The ringleader brought drugs from Balochistan and supplied them to educational institutes in the city as they had “access” to such institutes.

The police managed to obtain the call data record of the held suspects and prepared a list of those students who bought drugs from them.

The SSP said that the police would approach parents of such students.

He said that some students also committed theft in their houses to buy drugs.

Besides approaching parents, the police also decided to contact the administrations of the educational institutes whose students were allegedly involved in drugs.

Gulshan-i-Iqbal SHO Nasrullah Khan told Dawn that five of the six held suspects were educated and belonged to affluent families in the city.

“The drug dealers have made ‘sub-dealers’ who had set up groups comprising eight to 10 members, mostly students, to whom they initially provide drugs free of cost in order to turn them into an addict,” he said.

The SHO said that most students involved in drug use were 16 to 19.

Inquiry into labour leader’s death

Taking notice of the custodial death of a senior labour leader of Balochistan, Karachi police chief Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh ordered an inquiry to ascertain the circumstances and events which led to his death.

Babu Karim Jan, the president of the Gadani ship-breaking workers union, was arrested by the Iqbal Market police from his Metroville residence late on Saturday night.

The police claimed that he died of heart attack when he was arrested while his relatives and friends, who held a protest demonstration outside Karachi Press Club on Sunday evening, said that he was killed because of police torture.

The city police chief along with DIG West Amin Yousufzai and SSP West Shoukat Khatian visited the house of the deceased and expressed condolences with the family.

He informed the family that a team led by DIG CIA Arif Hanif had been formed to probe the incident.

He promised that a case would be registered against the raiding police party if they were found involved in misconduct, said a police spokesperson.

The family members and the area elders expressed gratitude to the police for taking action against the police party, he said.

Meanwhile, SSP Khatian told Dawn that a case had been registered against the raiding police team on the complaint of the deceased family for their alleged negligence.

However, no policeman had so far been arrested, he said.

The SSP said the labour leader was booked in two attempted murder cases and the probe into them had also been assigned to the DIG CIA by the city police chief.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2019