After wars, a new 'Drone' is haunting people in this remote Pakistani tribal village

The remote tribal belt, which was once known for terror activities, is now facing the challenge of the alcoholic concoction which has hit the community hard.

“The ingredients of this alcoholic drink are easily available over-the-counter drugs, syrups and cold drinks,” a resident told The Express Tribune.

A Tirah-based doctor confirmed that the concoction originated in Tirah and proliferated quickly to the settled districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“It has been given this funny name because it instantly makes you high and you start feeling light,” the doctor told the newspaper, speaking on the condition that he would not be identified.

“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 hundreds rupees,” the doctor said.

Following an excessive increase of addiction cases in the region,  local Aman Committee members recently announced a ban on certain cough syrups to rein in the rampancy of the drug.

Local doctors believe unemployment is the factor behind the spread of the drugs.

“Youngsters are jobless. Previously, growing cannabis was a profitable business. But for the past couple of years, security forces have banned the transportation of fertilisers which were used in the production of IEDs and explosives by terrorists," a doctor told The Express Tribune.