LAHORE: The Multan police arrested four men, two of them wearing the uniform of the SSG commandos of the Pakistan Army, smuggling 140kg charas in the ‘official vehicle’ of the agency through the motorway on Sunday.

Police stopped the ‘army van’ at the Shershah Interchange and the suspects introduced themselves as serving officials of the army.

A mobile phone video clip of the incident also went viral on social media wherein the suspects were seen expressing annoyance as their arrest was being recorded by police.

The clip showed the Multan Police counting packs of drugs being smuggled from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Multan through the motorway in apparently the army’s official vehicle they were using at that time of arrest.

Police claimed that initially the suspects had introduced themselves as Zahid Khan from SSG and others as Khalid Khan, Abdul Aziz and Faisal Khan. Two of them were clad in the army uniform while others were in civvies.

However, in the later inquiries, police said, it had been proved that they had disguised themselves as army officers to dodge the police and other law enforcement agencies.

Multan Regional Police

Officer (RPO) Sohail Chaudhry told Dawn police had stopped the ‘army vehicle’ on a tip-off. He said as the police intercepted the van, they found 140kg charas concealed in portions of the van and questioned the suspects. A team of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was also assisting police at that time.

Mr Chaudhry said the suspects introduced themselves as officials of the SSG. During inquiry, it appeared that they had painted a private van to give it a look of the army van. The uniform the suspects were wearing also proved fake and when the matter was brought to his notice, he immediately contacted the army. The army grilled the suspects, held an inquiry and handed them over back to police to initiate action against them, declaring them imposters.

The RPO said the Multan Police arrested and lodged a case against all the suspects following the clearance report by the army.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2024