PESHAWAR, March 17: Gangs of international drug smugglers are active in the country to trap unemployed youths for smuggling heroin.

One such youth, Mohammad Rashid, a resident of Multan, was killed when heroin-filled capsules he trafficked to Burundi (Africa), got burst in his stomach at a hospital.

“The Burundi authorities had arrested Rashid at the airport on suspicion,” a source who returned from Burundi a few days ago, told Dawn on Monday.

His Pakistani accomplice, Humayun, who belonged to Shagai area of Peshawar, was executed through a lethal injection after he confessed before a Burundi court to be involved in heroin smuggling.

Humayun’s body was received by his family on Friday last, the source said.

Mr Arshad had been trapped by the international gang some three months ago and it was his second trip   to Burundi which claimed his life, the source maintained.

The drug smugglers from Kenya, Burundi and Tanzania come to Pakistan and, in most cases, they give the task to their local accomplices to smuggle drugs to their respective countries. “The local drug barons, through their gang members, trap the unemployed youth to be heroin carriers,” the source said.

Yar Mohammad, a senior officer of the Customs Intelligence Department, told Dawn that usually the traffickers use specially-designed capsules to smuggle drugs.

“Being neighbour of the world’s leading heroin producing country,  Afghanistan, the drug trafficking from Pakistan had increased manifold,” he said, adding that the contrabandis smuggled via Pakistan.

Two African women drug smugglers were arrested by Anti- Narcotics Force personnel at Peshawar airport on the second day of the Eidul Fitr, when they were about to leave for Dubai.

Joseph Clara, a Tanzanian, and Njoroge Tapo, a Kenyan, were carrying 110 and 93 heroin-filled capsules in their stomachs.

They had confessed before a court that their Pakistani accomplice in Lahore had asked them to take flights from Peshawar as the law-enforcers were ‘lenient’ in their checking.

They told the court that they were working for an international gang of drug smugglers in their respective countries.