Police on Tuesday seized narcotics worth Rs8.5 million from three Nigerian nationals near the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) campus in Islamabad.

The three men, who were arrested, are suspected of supplying drugs to students in educational institutions of the capital, police said.

The drugs recovered by Secretariat Police from the suspects included 800 grams of heroin, 250g cocaine and 300g marijuana. A first information report has been registered against them.

Senior Superintendent Police (operations) Mohammad Amin Bukhari, on whose directions the operation was carried out, praised the station house officer of Secretariat Police Station over the seizure of the drugs.

"The criminals destroying the future of children will be dealt with an iron hand," a police statement quoted Bukhari as saying.

An Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) official had revealed earlier this year that as many as 67 per cent of university students in the country use drugs.

About 7.6 million people in Pakistan are drug addicts, out of which 78pc are men and 22pc women, ANF Director North Brig Hammad Dogar had said while speaking at a seminar in Rawalpindi.