Afghan opium processed in Pak before hitting int'l mkt, motivating narco-terrorism: Report

A report by European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) has revealed that after the Taliban assumed power in Kabul, Afghan heroin flooding the global markets and motivating narco-terrorism, emerging as a fresh threat in the war-torn nation. As per the EFSAS report, Afghanistan is the world’s largest opium producer as it accounts for about 87% of the global production despite a $9 billion effort over a two-decade period by the US to deter illegal production in the war-torn country. 

In its report, the EFSAS noted that after coming to power, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid had said that Afghanistan will not be a country of cultivation of opium anymore. “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is trying to eradicate the production of narcotics,” he had said. However, researchers said that Mujahid’s statement came with an important rider that the fight against opium would be predicated upon the Taliban receiving a general quantum of financial assistance from the international community. 

Mujahid had added, “but it is only possible when the whole world helps us in empowering the farmers and providing them with an alternative to earn their livelihood”. 

Taliban’s promises to end drug smuggling, therefore, are seen by observers as overtures to the international community and part of a strategy to entice foreign aid back to the country and alleviate the economic crisis, rather than a commitment to counternarcotics policy. While citing a UN report, EFSAS said that the primary sources of Taliban financing remain criminal activities and that the production and trafficking of both heroin and methamphetamines “remain the Taliban’s largest single source of income”. It said that the UN and the US have even contended that the Taliban are involved in all facets, including poppy planting, opium extraction, and trafficking.  

'Pakistan is on the front lines of the Afghan drug trade'

Further, the report read that much of the Afghan opium is processed into heroin in labs in Pakistan before flooding the European market. Hamid Mir, in his article in The Washington Post, asserted that Pakistan is on the front lines of the Afghan drug trade. The report said that 40% of Afghan drug trafficking utilises routes passing through Pakistan.

Using an example from Africa, John Godfrey, a US counterterrorism envoy, further highlighted the added danger of an expansive trade in drugs eventually morphing into narco-terrorism. In the report, Godfrey pointed out that the nexus between terrorism finance and narcotics trafficking in Mozambique that's “particularly problematic” in relation to the US designation of the Al Sunnah wa Jama (ASWJ) as a foreign terrorist organisation. 

The EFSAS report concluded by saying that therefore, there is an “urgent need for the international community to wake up to the dangerous challenges that lie ahead for it if it does not do enough now to prevent the Taliban-inspired surge of Afghan heroin and meth in distant and vulnerable shores all across the world.”

(Image: AP)