After the General Atomics US ‘Predators’ and ‘Reapers’, the unmanned aerial vehicles that caused death in the tribal regions, now an alcoholic concoction is becoming a new cause of death in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).
The alcoholic drink is aptly named, ‘Drone’, concocted by moonshiners in the remote Tirah Valley of the Khyber tribal district, which was once infamous for militancy and poppy cultivation. “The ingredients of this alcoholic drink are easily available over-the-counter drugs, syrups, and cold drinks,” reports The Express Tribune.
A Tirah-based doctor confirmed that the brew originated in Tirah and escalated quickly to the settled districts of KP. “It has been given this funny name because it instantly makes you high and you start feeling light,” the doctor said, while speaking to The Express Tribune on the condition that he would not be identified.
Economic depression and instability have reportedly led to an increase in the use of ‘Drone’ – a cure-all elixir – by the youth in the area.
“Several kinds of sleeping tablets are dissolved in a popular soft-drink along with two types of sedative cough syrups, along with easily available cheap drugs to make this drink, which is sold for a few hundred rupees,” the doctor said.
However, the explosive flooding of the drink prompted distress among members of the local Aman Committee who had to announce a ban on certain cough syrups to rein in the uncontrolled spread of the drugging drink.
“Any shopkeeper found selling these cough syrups will be penalised with a fine – and a warning.”
