KOHAT, Nov 27: The drug sellers in the tribal areas have refused to remove sign boards from their drug shops conveying to the government that their freedom has been guaranteed by the Constitution and that they will not bow to any pressure.

Similarly the tribesmen providing shelter to the absconding criminals, in the Khyber and Orakzai agencies, Darra Adamkhel and the frontier region of Kohat, have also failed to comply with the orders to handover hundreds of criminals wanted by the police.

The political administration has been trying to persuade the drug  sellers in the areas to remove the sign boards from their shops as desired by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF).

In Darra Adamkhel, the tribal elders had sought some time from the government to convince the tribesmen, but they failed and allegedly bowed before the pressure of the influential and rich drug sellers.

So far two deadlines given by the authorities in this regard have passed without any results.

A senior official of the NWFP home and tribal affairs department told Dawn that the use of the military force was the only  solution of the problem. He said the rise in the prices of opium and hashish, during the last few years, had given a boost to the otherwise dwindling business.

The people have appealed the NWFP governor to take strict measures to curb the rising crime rate in the settled areas by bringing more than 16,000 fugitives hiding in the tribal areas to justice.

Majority of the people hoped that the newly-elected Muttahida Majlis- i-Amal government in the province would solve the problem as the police was just playing a silent spectator.