KOHAT, Jan 25: The drug smugglers of Darra Adamkhel, who were dislodged in an operation by the local Taliban in 2007, have established their businesses on a disputed land near Orakzai Agency border.

A new market of drugs, especially hashish produced in the Tirah valley, has sprung up at Bezote on the border between Kohat district and Orakzai Agency.

The drug sellers had shifted to the main Indus Highway from main bazaar in Darra Adamkhel after the construction of the bypass road four years ago. At that time most of the shops in the bazaar had been shut down by Taliban, but the business continued secretly.

The businessmen told Dawn on Sunday that their shops were burnt and they had to shift to the main highway, as the main bazaar had been bypassed after the construction of tunnel on the Indus Highway. Hotels had also cropped up along the road and the business once again has started booming.

A shop owner said, “Taliban have made us jobless. We lost huge stocks of drugs and now have no other source to clear the outstanding amount we owe to the producers of hashish and growers of hemp. The parties in Punjab and Sindh owe us millions of rupees, but they will pay us only, when we provide them more stuff as a rule of the business. The suppliers of the area have suffered losses to the tune of Rs20 million each.”

Now most of them have shifted to Bezote area of Orakzai Agency, which is a disputed land and also a no-go area declared by the law enforcement agencies to provide protection to smugglers, kidnappers and hijackers of vehicles, said some of the shop owners.

Sources said that the land dispute dates back to 1971 between the tribesmen of Bezote of Orakzai Agency and Bangash tribe of Mohammadzai area of Kohat. The political authorities and the district administration tried to solve the dispute, but the matter was hushed up on the instructions of a very influential personality.

The assistant coordination officer, Kohat and assistant political agent of lower Orakzai Agency held several meetings, but shelved the issue forever. The ACO, while answering a query about the delay in the solution of the issue, told this scribe that it would ‘never be resolved’.

The mafia established this new headquarters very smartly. First they used an influential personality as a front man, who took permission from the government to find coal there. He started converting tents made for the labourers into mud houses and when the drug business got established, he pulled out by saying that there was a very small quantity of coal in the mountains, so little that he could not ‘waste more money’.