PESHAWAR, Aug 20: The Anti-Narcotics Force has reportedly started efforts to secure the release of eight Pakistani labourers arrested in Kuwait on charges of drug pushing.

One of the 10 alleged drug smugglers, arrested in Kuwait about three months ago, has managed to come back to his hometown Parachinar in Kurram Agency.

Nine labourers of the Parachinar town had been arrested along with a wanted drug smuggler by Kuwaiti law-enforcement authorities for possessing heroin and illegally entering the country from Iran, said Akhtar Ali, whose brother, Hameed Hussain, was among the arrested labourers.

The labourers had gone to Iran for jobs but had been cheated by the drug smuggler, belonging to the same tribal area, who had offered them well-paid jobs in Kuwait.

All of them were between 18 and 22 years of age, Mr Ali, who runs an electric appliances shop in Parachinar, told Dawn by telephone.

He said the Anti-Narcotics Force’s regional office in Peshawar had promised to work for the release of the remaining eight labourers who had carried drugs to Kuwait unknowingly.

Sources said the ANF had drafted a letter to be sent to the Kuwait government stating that the eight people were innocent.

Mr Ali said Hameed Hussain, Habib Hasan, Ishaq, Sadaf Ali, Shaukat, Riaz and three others of Pewaar and Malana villages had gone to Iran illegally for jobs about four months ago.

Mr Ali said the labourers earned 10,000 Pakistani rupees a month, but Najmul Hasan, a resident of the Pewaar village, met them and offered them jobs in Kuwait. The labourers were told that they would be paid Rs25,000 a month in Kuwait.

He said they accepted the offer and prepared to travel to Kuwait state by motorboats. When they boarded the motorboats, Najmul Hasan asked them to wear life-saving jackets to save themselves in case of any mishap.

But, Mr Ali said, when they reached the Kuwaiti shore, personnel of a drug control agency arrested them along with Najmul Hasan and recovered a huge quantity of heroin from their life-saving jackets.

Najmul Hasan was already wanted to the Kuwaiti anti-drug agency and he was on the list of drug smugglers.

However, Mr Ali said, eight of the nine labourers told the agency men that they belonged to the Khost province, Afghanistan.

According to sources, the Kuwaiti authorities informed Pakistan about the arrest of two Pakistani drug smugglers and eight Afghans.

Mr Ali said a few days ago, Habib Hasan managed to come back to Parachinar via Khost as he had declared himself an Afghan national.

“I don’t know how he returned, but we have met him and he has narrated the entire episode about their travel to Iran and then their arrest in Kuwait,” Mr Ali said.

REGULATION: The governor of the NWFP has issued the Provincially Administrated Tribal Areas (Conservation and Exploitation of Certain Forests — Repeal) Regulation, 2006, says PPI.