PESHAWAR, April 5: Police, with the help of local people, destroyed on Sunday poppy crop grown on vast areas of Shabqadar town in the Charsadda district near Mohmand tribal region. The police and local elders had held meetings for five days and finally reached an agreement to destroy the crop cultivated on 140 kanals in Angoor Korona, Zareef Korona, Kas Korona, Badi Korona and Aiysha Korona.

Before destroying the crop, landlords, including Malik Zafar, Malik Iftikhar, Malik Mohibullah and others, told journalists that they had been growing poppy since the ouster of Taliban regime in Afghanistan, due to the increasing demand in the neighbouring country.

They leased out land to Afghan farmers who were expert in extracting opium from poppy buds, the elders said. The landlords said they were forced to get cultivated the banned crop due to the poor irrigation system. Poppy needed not that much water, therefore small landlords gave their land to Afghans on lease for growing the banned crop, they added.

They said police was allowed to destroy the poppy crop on the condition that the government would fulfil their genuine demands, including provision of potable water, initiating a tube-well scheme, establishing a school for girls, and giving jobs to the locals in police force.

The elders told the newsmen that they had destroyed the poppy crop in their areas, but a large quantity of poppy had also been grown in Charsadda district by some influential families who also owned factories to convert opium into heroin.

Chief of capital city police Tanvir-ul-Haq Sipra told the journalists that they had been informed by secret agency personnel about the cultivation of poppy crop in the area. Farmers had tactically grown the poppy in the centre of wheat crop to keep the banned item cultivation secret from the general public, he added.