RAWALPINDI, April 30: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) shuttle bus driver was allegedly caught red-handed while handing over three heroin-laden jackets to a Dubai-bound passenger at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Monday.

Sources in the airport told Dawn that the bus driver and the passenger of the Dubai-bound PIA flight (PK-211) were taken into custody by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) for further investigation. They said two more persons were suspected to be involved in the drug trafficking attempt.

Waqar Azeem, the shuttle bus driver, was taking the passengers from the departure lounge to the aircraft when he was spotted, by a senior officer of the ANF, handing over the heroin-laden jackets to the passenger in the bus.

The sources said the attempt to smuggle the narcotics was foiled after a deputy director of the ANF posing himself as a passenger started surveillance of the passengers in the check-in lounge.

“Though he could not spot the suspected passenger in the lounge, he boarded the shuttle bus and caught the driver while handing over the jackets to the passenger who was travelling without hand baggage,” the sources said, and added: “Each jacket contained two kg heroin.”

The passenger was identified as Mohammad Riaz Sarwar, a resident of Sargodha.

When contacted, Azhar Butt, the spokesman for PIA, said it was the passenger who was caught while carrying narcotics though the driver was also taken into custody. “The driver will be freed soon,” he said but gave no details.

Opinion

Editorial

Border clashes
19 May, 2024

Border clashes

THE Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier has witnessed another series of flare-ups, this time in the Kurram tribal district...
Penalising the dutiful
19 May, 2024

Penalising the dutiful

DOES the government feel no remorse in burdening honest citizens with the cost of its own ineptitude? With the ...
Students in Kyrgyzstan
Updated 19 May, 2024

Students in Kyrgyzstan

The govt ought to take a direct approach comprising convincing communication with the students and Kyrgyz authorities.
Ominous demands
Updated 18 May, 2024

Ominous demands

The federal government needs to boost its revenues to reduce future borrowing and pay back its existing debt.
Property leaks
18 May, 2024

Property leaks

THE leaked Dubai property data reported on by media organisations around the world earlier this week seems to have...
Heat warnings
18 May, 2024

Heat warnings

STARTING next week, the country must brace for brutal heatwaves. The NDMA warns of severe conditions with...