CHINIOT: Police claim to have arrested a hardened criminal with a 41-year record of crimes, arrests, cases, bails, convictions and acquittals since 1978.

Saddar police arrested Ghulam Ali, 60, while he was trafficking 1,175 gram hashish into the district.

Investigations revealed that Ali, a resident of Chak 127-JB, was first identified as a criminal in 1978 in Chenab Nagar when a thef t case was registered against him under sections 457/80/411. Two years later, another theft case was registered against him in Chak Jhumra, Faisalabad, in 1980 under sections 379/411.

In 1989, he was booked by Saddarpolice under sections AO-13-20/65 for keeping and selling illegal weapons. However, that did not stop him from carrying out such illegal activities and he was arrested for sale of illegal arms in 1993 and 1996 by Saddar police. Then in 1997, separate cases under Section 3/4 of the Anti-Narcotics Act were registered against him in Sargodha and Chiniot. In one of these cases, he was fined only Rs500 by Civil Judge Muhammad Ashig in 2000.

Later, he remained underground and continued selling narcotics in Chiniot and its neighbouring districts. Saddar police arrested him in 2008 as well as 2013 under sections 9-B and 9-C of The Control of Narcotic Substances Act 1997 and he was sentenced for 11 years with six months of rigorous imprison-ment.

Ali was released in 2019 and resumed his business. But only a few months later, he was booked again in May under the narcotics act for selling liquor and fined only Rs1,500 by a local court. After depositing the fine, he did not stop his illegal business and was nabbed again by police on Saturday with 1,175 grammes of hashish under Section 9-C of The Control of Narcotic Substances Act 1997.

District Police Officer Hasnain Haider told Dawn that police were keepinga vigilanteye onsuchhardened criminals after they were released from jails and arrested them again if they resumed their businesses. The prosecution will try to have him awarded maximum punishment, he added.