KOHAT: The police foiled attempts of smuggling heroin and weapons to down country through the Indus Highway here on Friday.

The carriers were arrested by Jarma and Riaz Shaeed police stations. Cases were registered against them. They admitted to smuggling drugs and weapons to southern districts.

The Jarma police were checking vehicles at the Muslimabad checkpost when they stopped a passenger coach for checking. During search of passengers they found heroin tied to the leg of a passenger named Tahir belonging to Peshawar.

The Riaz Saheed police stopped a passenger coach near the Kohat Friendship tunnel and seized two Kalashnikovs, six chargers and 200 cartridges from Ibraheem of Bannu.

A statement said that district police officer Mansoor Aman had directed the officials to tighten noose around smugglers of weapons and drugs from tribal subdivision of Darra Adamkhel and other tribal regions.

COMMISSION SOUGHT: The office-bearers of the filling stations’ association of Kohat division have demanded constitution of a commission for early fixation of responsibility for the shortage of petrol in the country.

Addressing a press conference at the Kohat Press Club, the association’s chairman Amjid Shinwari said that the commission should identify that whether oil companies, Ogra, government or petrol pumps were responsible for the shortage.

He apologised to the commuters for undergoing trouble and clarified that pump owners were not responsible for the shortage. He said why they would be causing millions worth of loss to themselves.

He said that the administration should check the pumps if they had petrol or dry tanks. He said that petrol was not being supplied from Taro Jabba storage and their tankers were stationed there for filling.

Mr Shinwari criticised the arrest of petrol pump owners in other districts and said that they were innocent.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2020