Altaf Hamid Rao;
MIRPUR, (Parliament Times): AJK Police have decided to initiate legal proceeding against the recently unearthed alleged notorious drug mafia / international band of drug traffickers belonging to Kotli, Azad Jammu Kashmir and their alleged accomplices belonging to various sections of life including certain police officials , in the area. This was disclosed by Mirpur Senior Superintendent of police Raja Irfan Salim who told media here on Tuesday that since the drug traffickers and their facilitators were not only the menace of worst in the society but also the killers of the humanity.
“It is the legal and moral duty of the police to bring the drug paddlers to justice under the very spirit of saving the society from the menace of narcotics which have become the permanent threat to the society”, he added while unveiling the story of the recent police success in unearthing an international drug-traffickers gang led by their alleged ring leader Raja Mushtaq Nawabi belonging to Kotli district of AJK. The SSP continued that the police rounded up the above drug-traffickers band in Kotli last year which, he added, was involved in heroin smuggling to various countries for the last 29 years. Police, he said, in a swift action rounded up 12 members of this gang and recovered and confiscated 16 leather jackets containing 14 kilogram of heroin, booked for Britain. “Besides, the police also recovered and confiscated the drug money of Rs. 04 million, raw material, 02 vehicles purchased of the drug money and another drug money amount of Rs. 102.02 million which had been transferred through a nameless banck account”, he said.
Raja Irfan Salim stated that some of major accused belonging to the gang including Sajid Nawabi, Amjad Nawabi, Hafiz Mansoor Sultan and Habib Shah had escaped to Dubai with the assistance of certain local police officers. The absconding accused Amjad Nawabi and Sajid Nawabi had carried 13 of the leather jackets containing 10 kg of heroin while fleeing to Dubai, he said. The district police chief further stated that the police continue chasing the bandits despite they had fled Dubai – wherefrom, they maneuvered and launched media trial of the police with the assistance of two journalists to blackmail the police chasing them to monitor their criminal activities and designs. “Police did not scare of their such nefarious designs and continued its proceeding and action under the law”, he underlined. The SSP further told that 12 of the above arrested accused were awarded one to 08 years of imprisonments by the trial court of law in Kotli. He said that one of the accused belonging to the gang identified as Hafiz Sajid Nawabi, who had escaped to Dubai, got back and secured stay order from AJK High Court against the police action besides securing interim bail from the Kotli trial court.
Irfan Salim further stated that Mirpur police also arrested Hafiz Sajid Nawabi in a seperate case of black mailing the police officers through the social media about a month ago – who, he said, was released after staying one month in prison on bail granted by the AJK High Court. The SSP revealed that in the preliminary investigations by the police, the accused Hafiz Sajid Nawabi had unveiling all the characters, which documentary evidences including audio recordings with important disclosures about the alleged involved of four of the police officers, two journalists, three lawyers, two politicians, an official of AJK Accountability Bureau and another important official institution, who had allegedly received Rs. 50 million out of the drug money in acknowledgement of their “services” allegedly for ensuring the skin-saving of the bandits.
“The investigations from the accused Sajid Nawabi further revealed, through the evidences of documents and the audio recordings, that the police officials allegedly involved in the episode, are engaged in extending assistance and guidance to the proclaimed offenders belonging to the drug paddlers with prime ulterior motives to facilitate the bandits by hatching plan, through video-recorded statements of the jailed accused to defame senior police officers besides for assistance of the drug bandits, through two of the journalists and the lawyers”, the SSP said.
Irfan Salim said that the accused Sajid Nawabi, in his initial statement of confession before the magistrate, narrated entire story of the unlawful activities of the drug paddlers band including his sinister role of attempting to defamed and harass the police through the social media as well a section of other media means. “All characters involved in the activities of the bandits including the above drug mafia are being taken to task through the legal proceeding”, the SSP declared. Irfan sought the due cooperation and assistance of masses to the police to eliminate crimes from the society and the police will leave no stone unturned to uproot and wipe out the anti-social evils from the society in view of its (police) responsibility to wipe out crimes from roots, he concluded.