DERA ISMAIL KHAN: As many as 585 vials of the Covid-19 vaccine have been provided to the Dera Ismail Khan district for vaccination of the frontline health workers.

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, EPI coordinator and district focal person for Covid-19 Dr Irfan Aziz said the vaccine would be administered to doctors and staff working in the Covid-19 labs and wards in the hospitals.

He said in the first phase frontline workers of Mufti Mehmood Hospital would be vaccinated.

In a separate development, the traders staged a shutter down strike in the Kulachi city on Saturday against increasing thefts and robberies in the district.

The shopkeepers also set fire to tyres and blocked the road. Abdul Manan, president of Anjuman-i-Tajran Kulachi, vice president Hayatullah Khan, and Samiullah Khan, president of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Kulachi labour wing, led the protest. The speakers said the police had failed to curb such incidents.

Also in the day, the Daraban police arrested two persons while taking a huge quantity of drugs from Quetta to the Khyber tribal district.

The drugs were hidden in plastic bags inside apple cartons in a truck, the police said. Additional SP Aslam Khattak told the media that 2,500 kilogrammes of hashish and 20.400 kilogrammes of opium were seized.

He said SHO Daraban Chaudhry Attaullah had received a tip-off that a large quantity of drugs was being smuggled to the Khyber district via Quetta.

He said the police set up a roadblock, and stopped a truck and recovered contraband from it. He said the peddlers, Qasim Khan Afridi and Khan Syed of Landi Kotal, were to deliver the drugs to one Haji Mansoor Afridi of Bara.

The police registered a case against the accused.

SP Khattak said earlier the Daraban police had seized 447kg hashish and four non-custom paid vehicles.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2021