Three policemen were killed and four others have been injured after unknown assailants opened fire on their vehicle in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district, a caretaker minister said on April 13, Monday. The incident had happened on April 11, Saturday but the news was apparently kept under wraps in an attempt to show that all is well in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The police team was on its way back from Thor village after destroying poppy cultivation when unidentified assailants opened indiscriminate fire on the vehicle, Caretaker Home Minister Sajid Baig said, according a report in Dawn newspaper. As a result of the attack, apparently carried out by those whose crops had been destroyed, three police officials were killed and four others, including an officer(a DySP), were injured, according to a Dawn report.
An exchange of fire between the police and the miscreants continued for several hours. An additional contingent of police and law enforcement personnel had been sent to the site of the incident, Baig said. The minister noted that the police team was attacked when returning from a two-day operation to destroy poppy crops “spread over a vast area of land”.
Meanwhile, considering the situation, the health ministry declared an emergency in the local hospitals of Diamer and directed the doctors and paramedical staff to remain alert. Shabbir Ahmed Mir, spokesperson for the chief minister, told Dawn that a deputy superintendent of police(DSP) was also injured in the incident.
Separately, in multiple tehsils of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including Barani tehsil in Bajaur, Bittani subdivision of Lakki Marwat district, Mohmand tribal district and mountainous areas of Raza tehsil in Swabi, the police had destroyed the poppy crops. In this province, poppy is grown in remote pockets by local warlords, including Tehrik Taliban Pakistan(TTP) rebels.
For decades, the Pakistani authorities deliberately ignored the growing of poppy in mountainous regions as it was considered a concession given to armed bands who fought against the US and were sent to fight in Jammu & Kashmir. This policy of allowing growing of poppy, refine it to get heroin and smuggle it outside was Pakistan’s way of financing the various groups of Taliban. However, it has come to haunt its security forces which are having a tough time in fighting the TTP.
Pakistani police periodically carries out such destruction of poppy fields in remote tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan as part of an anti-narcotics operation. In these operations, officials(often policemen) use sticks to cut down and uproot plants across several hectares near the Afghan border. Authorities usually claim that the campaigns were aimed at curbing drug production. Local farmers, however, argue they rely on poppy cultivation due to poverty and lack of basic services, pointing out that alternative crops bring lower returns and limited income.
