LARKANA: Police recovered huge stocks of gutka and wine worth millions of rupees in two raids on drug dens in its renewed drive against narcotics and drug peddlers in the city on Saturday.

ASP city Atiqur Rehman along with Market police station SHO Sartaj Jagirani raided a go-down in fish market and unearthed huge quantity of gutka packed in over 20 gunny bags. The contraband stocked in the rented go-down was supplied inside and outside Larkana, said police.

The ASP told journalists that the value of the confiscated gutka was estimated at over Rs1 million. The suspected drug peddlers Afzal Tagar, owner of the go-down and his employees, had escaped after they had sensed danger, said sources. However, police went after the drug suspects to arrest them.

In another raid led by the ASP city and SHO of Dari police station, Ubedur Rehman Dharejo, on a house owned by one Faheem Mugheri police recovered 32 cartons of wine and beer.

The market value of the seized drugs was estimated at around Rs300,000, police said. As usual, the suspect along with his accomplices had slipped away before the raid and police claimed to go after them to round them up.

In yet another case, Dari police arrested one Saeed Shaikh and recovered 1037 bottles of wine from his possession. Police were probing all three cases to reach all members of the gang, said police.

JUI-F accuses police of forming nexus with criminals

Muhabbat Ali Khuhro, general secretary of Larkana district chapter of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) said in his statement hailed police action against drug traffickers but alleged that police itself were involved in the crime.

He claimed that police were hand in glove with the drug traffickers at different levels. He urged IGP Sindh to take action against the black sheep in the force who were bringing a bad name to police department.

It looked quite impossible without police support to have easy access to all kinds of drugs such as heroin, charas, opium and ice in the district, he said.

He believed the plans for action contemplated against narcotics dealers and drug traffickers by the SSPs were more often leaked out to the criminals before the raids. He expressed serious concern over easy availability of drugs in the city. Many students had fallen victim to drug addiction due to easy access to contrabands, he said.

He thanked SSP Larkana for initiating such bold steps and crackdown on drug traffickers in the district.

SHO wounded in encounter with gangsters

The SHO of Dodapur police station SI Nabi Bakhsh Dahani was admitted to the Chandka Medical College Hospital on Saturday after he was wounded in a gun battle between his team and a gang of dacoits near Bijar Katohar village with in the jurisdiction of the Punhoon Bhatti police station in Jacobabad district.

The police team led by DSP Bashir Ahmed Shar was chasing a wanted dacoit, Ghulam Serwar Katohar, carrying a head-money, when his gang members opened fire on it.

The police team returned the fire and in the ensuing gun battle, SHO Dahani sustained bullet wounds, according to a statement issued by the Jacobabad district police.

It said the gangsters managed to escape under the cover of heavy firing.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2023