QUETTA, July 31: Afghan drug traffickers attacked a border checkpost of the Frontier Corps in the Qila Khurd area of Dalbindin, close to the Afghan border, using heavy weapons, including rockets, on Sunday.

The drug traffickers launched a heavy attack in the early hours taking position at hill tops inside the Afghan territory of Hilmand province.

“They lobbed at least eight rockets and fired hundreds of bullets at the border post of FC,” a senior official of the Chagai administration told this correspondent over the telephone from Dalbandin.

The FC troops posted at the check post retaliated by firing rockets at the positions of Afghan traffickers. The heavy exchange of fire continued for half an hour. However, no casualty was reported, sources said.

Official sources said that the traffickers, taking advantage of the darkness, fled into Afghan area in their vehicles.

It is worth mentioning here that the FC has shifted all its check posts to the border areas in view of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee of Balochistan.

After shifting the check posts the FC has increased its surveillance in the border areas which has badly affected the movement of Afghan drug traffickers who were using Balochistan as a transit for smuggling their consignments to the coastal areas from where it was smuggled to the Gulf States and European countries.

PML: The provincial minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Mir Abdul Rehman Jamali, said on Sunday that all possible measures would be taken to hold local council elections in a peaceful atmosphere and organise the Pakistan Muslim League into a potent and successful political force in the province.

Mr Jamali told reporters here that the measures were being taken after Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz issued directives about holding the polls in an atmosphere of peace and calm and organising the PML in the province.

The provincial minister said the council session of the PML in Balochistan was likely to be held in the first week of August.

“The PML will be organized at all levels in Balochistan,” Mir Jamali said while acknowledging that the party was facing some difficulties in the province.

According to him, the PML parliamentary group was keen to restore the party’s status as senior partner of the coalition government and had already taken up this issue with the party high command.

Claiming that the Muslim League would emerge as a major political force in the province after winning the local body elections, Mr Jamali said the PML leadership was concentrating all its efforts on party affairs.