PESHAWAR, Dec 15: Two persons, arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on the charge of smuggling heroin, were released from the prison on Saturday after the seized narcotics turned out to be simple powder.

Sources in the ANF told Dawn that the issue had become a source of embarrassment for the officials as they had given wide publicity to the case and claimed that the two persons were the members of an international gang of traffickers.

Mosam Khan, son of Umer Khan, and Lal Mohammed, son of Haji Mohammed, were arrested by a raiding party in the provincial metropolis near the Frontier College for Women on Oct 3, 2002.

The ANF high-ups claimed that they had prior information about the smuggling of heroin to Punjab by two persons of a gang of traffickers. A raiding party headed by assistant director Mohammed Iqbal was assigned the task to nab the culprits, the sources said.

They said that the accused were reportedly carrying some cartons from which the officials had claimed of recovering 37 packets of heroin weighing a kilogramme each.

The ANF also recovered a pistol from the possession of one of the accused, Mr Khan, the ANF sources said.

The accused, in their statements before the investigation officer under section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code, had confessed of the crime.

After their arrest the seized contraband was sent for chemical examination, which showed that traces of heroin could not be detected, the sources said, adding that the ANF then exonerated them under section 169 of the CrPC and filed an application before the court of a magistrate, Safiullah Khan, stating that they should be released as enough evidence was not available against them. The court issued their release order on Dec 11.

An official of the ANF said that under section 26 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act (CNSA), 1997, an official could be sentenced up to three years imprisonment for vexatious search, seizure and arrest. However, he said that the high-ups were trying to hush up the issue.

He added that it was yet not clear whether the recovery of the narcotics was doubtful or the seized narcotics was replaced by the accused in connivance with any of the officials of the force.