MIANWALI: A police constable and a Razakar were martyred on Wednesday in a three-hour long encounter with alleged narcotics smugglers on Punjab-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial border in the precincts of Chapri police station, some 60km from here in Isakhel tehsil of the district.

As per police sources, Chapri station house officer, on a tip-off about drug trafficking through the hilly area of the provincial border, got the route picketed by a police team. The drug smugglers, on sensing the police presence on the hilly route opened indiscriminate fire on the team, ensuing a crossfire that continued for about three hours.

During the crossfire, police Head Constable Mohammad Ali and Razakar Ghulm Rasool were martyred, while the drug smugglers disappeared in the hilly area, police sources said.

District Police Officer Hassan Asad Alvi, on getting information of the encounter, reached the spot leading a heavy elite force contingent, they added.

The sources said smugglers of narcotics and illegal weapons regularly uses the hilly area of the district for trafficking contraband to other parts of the country.

The Chapri is the first police station of Punjab falling on the route of the smugglers.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2019