PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Friday granted bail to an Afghan national arrested by a special anti-narcotics team on charges of smuggling drugs to Punjab in a vehicle.

A single-member bench comprising Justice Lal Jan Khattak accepted petition filed by the suspect, Musa Khan, a resident of Danishabad, on condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each.

The petitioner claimed that he was implicated in a concocted case.

The police’s Narcotics Eradication Team (NET) had registered an FIR on Aug 3 under different provisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Control of Narcotics Substance Act, claiming that the suspect was travelling in a car, from which 10kgs of heroin and 5kgs of methamphetamine (ice) was recovered.

Advocate Zohra Durrani appeared for the petitioner and contended that there were glaring contradictions in the prosecution’s version of the case.

She contended that the cellular phone record of the petitioner clearly proved that her client was not present at the place of the occurrence as mentioned in the FIR.

She contended that her client was implicated in a false case, claiming that during last couple of days some officers of NET had been booking Afghan nationals in such cases.

She argued that the petitioner was picked up from his residence and there were several witnesses to that, and was subsequently charged in the instant case.

Ms Zohra Durrani contended that if the FIRs registered during recent days by the said police officers for recovery of narcotics were examined it would transpire that they were almost identical in nature and only names of suspects and that of quantity of the ceased narcotics were changed.

She argued that her client was a respectable citizen and deserved to be set free on bail.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2021