PESHAWAR, Oct 25: The government has failed to eliminate narcotics as heroin is being sold at several locations in the city with alleged connivance of the law enforcement agencies.
The sale of heroin and the groups of addicts gathered at different places expose the government’s claim of arresting the menace.
“Half of the heroin addict patients are again admitted to hospitals after being released following initial rehabilitation,” said by Dr Zakirullah Khan, medical superintendent of the Mental Hospital, where a 10-bed ward has been established for the heroin addicts.
The MS told Dawn that the hospital administration arranged a session of discussion with the patients daily to inform them about the bad effects of heroin smoking and establish a sense of self-respect in an attempt to make them useful members of society,” he said.
He said addicts started smoking heroin again when they returned to their homes because the families did not give them respect and the drug mafia approached them again.
Bakhtiyar, who was admitted to the hospital 10 days back, said he was a government employee in police factory. “Ten years back I used to smoke hashish and indigenous liquor, but when my only son died about four years back, I started taking heroin, which is easily available here,” he maintained.
He said that when six or seven junkies sat to puff heroin, one of them would be a drug pusher.
Bakhtiyar claimed that general bus stand, Karim Pura and Chakka Gali were some of the areas where heroin was sold in the presence of police. “One person sells heroin openly outside Lahori Gate and most of the addicts purchase the drug from him,” he alleged and added that even outside the Mental Hospital a person sold heroin since long.
He said that when his family came to know about his addiction, they sent him to Karachi. But it was more easily available there. “Sultanabad, Dhobhi Ghat, Banaras Colony and Sohrab Goth are some areas from where I used to purchase heroin before coming back to Peshawar,” he claimed.
“The drug smugglers are doing the business in connivance with the police,” he alleged.
Sometimes the police raided the areas and resorted to aerial firing to give the impression that they were not allowing the criminals to sell heroin, but the activities of the law enforcers were just an eyewash, he said.
Gulmand, a resident of Bara, Khyber Agency, said he was a hashish smoker since long as it was socially acceptable for the tribesmen, but he switched to heroin in 1984. Heroin was not available in Bara and the addicts and smugglers bought it from Sheikhan area, he claimed.
“When I was living here, I used to buy heroin from Tehkal area. The pusher was later arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Force but it is available in many areas of the city,” he maintained.
He lamented that the drug traffickers had begun making fake heroin from chemicals.
“The price of original heroin per gram is Rs120 and the same amount of fake white powder is being sold at Rs15. The addicts, due to their poverty, mostly puff fake heroin, which causes certain death in a short period,” he maintained.
Another patient, Raj Wali, resident of Ormara, said he used to purchase heroin from a graveyard near Yakatoot police station. The police knew about the drug pusher but never tried to arrest him, he alleged.