PESHAWAR, Nov 23: Security forces have destroyed poppy crops over 200 acres of land in the lower Orakzai Agency, official sources said on Tuesday. More than 150 tribesmen have been held on charges of sowing the banned crop in the tribal region.

The political administration had ordered tribesmen to destroy poppy fields and threatened to take action against who refused to comply with the directive.

On Tuesday morning, the political administrator ordered the Bajaur Levies and Khasadar force personnel to launch the operation in Esakhel and Sheikhan area of lower Orakzai Agency.

The security forces destroyed poppy crops in Esakhel and Sheikhan regions and arrested 150 tribal farmers for cultivating the banned crop in violation of the law, sources added.

Some of the arrested tribesmen were shifted to Kohat and other district prisons due to space constraints in lock-ups of the political administration in Orakzai Agency, they added.

In other areas of Orakzai Agency, sources said tribesmen themselves destroyed poppy crops sown over 1,200 acres of land.

Religious leaders of the tribal region have issued an edict declaring the cultivation of poppy forbidden in Islam.

Administration officials said the decree would certainly play a positive role in stopping tribesmen from cultivating the banned plant.

They said the operation in Orakzai Agency would continue until poppy was fully eradicated from the region.

The political administration on Tuesday suspended to two subedars of the levies force and arrested them on charges of providing false information about poppy cultivation in Orakzai Agency.

Subedars Toor Khan and Rahim Khan are now behind bars and an inquiry has been initiated against them, sources added.

SEIZED: The Anti-Narcotics Force has arrested three alleged arms and drugs smugglers in Kohat on Monday, according to an official statement issued here on Tuesday.