PESHAWAR, Sept 3: The Anti-Narcotics Force arrested a Motorway Police official after seizing drugs from his car on Saturday, a spokesman for the force told Dawn on Sunday.

Akhtar Iqbal Khattak, who was in-charge of the security team of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali when the latter was chief minister of Balochistan, was carrying drugs from the tribal region to Lahore, said ANF spokesman Agha Sabaul Hassan.

The accused, at present serving as senior patrolling officer in the Motorway Police, was arrested on the G. T. Road near Pabbi, Mr Hassan said.

The ANF, on information, stopped the car of Mr Khattak near Pabbi but he resisted the search and showed his official card. However, the ANF searched the vehicle and recovered one kilogramme of heroin, 5.8kg of opium and 162kg of hashish from secret cavities the car, the official said.

During preliminary interrogation, Mr Hassan said, the accused had confessed that he had got the drugs from a gang in the tribal area and was taking it to Lahore. He said the accused had conceded that he had smuggled three consignments of drugs to Lahore and it was his fourth attempt.

He said that during his tenure with the Balochistan police, Mr Khattak had been twice suspended from service – first, charged in a murder case and second, on the charge of corruption. He had also been suspended while with the Motorway Police for misbehaving during duty.