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| India-Pakistan |
| MMA government supporting poppy cultivation |
| 2003-05-24 |
| RECORD LAND HAS BEEN BROUGHT under poppy cultivation in Pakistanâs Balochistan and North West Frontier Province this year breaking the 1998 figures of 950 hectares, which were the highest in the last four years. Much of the crop is ready to be harvested or has already been harvested in some parts of the NWFP. UNDCP sources say the law-enforcement agencies could destroy not more than âone-thirdâ of the total standing crop in the NWFP until the first week of May. Meanwhile, the Frontier Corps claims it has destroyed the entire crop in Balochistan. The FC claim, however, has drawn a question mark. According to home department sources in Quetta, poppy was cultivated on a total of 2,000 hectares of land. The FC told the UNDCP it had destroyed the entire crop. However, armed resistance in Balochistan was much higher than in the NWFP, particularly in the Gulistan area where the paras had a standoff with armed tribesmen using RPGs (rocket-propelled grenade launchers) and other small arms and light weapons to prevent FC troops from destroying their crop. Sources say the prime reason for unusually high acreage for poppy this year behind temptation among farmers to bring vast land under poppy cultivation was the pre-season high price of poppy per kilogram by the buyers. The pre-season price of per kilo poppy was reported around Rs.50000 [around 900 US dollars]. Insiders say the international drug mafia hiked up the price to induce more farmers into poppy cultivation. Interestingly, once a bumper crop is ensured, the buyers drop the price to half the original price knowing the growers will have little option but to sell the crop at the end of the season. In some cases, the buyers provide the poverty-stricken farmers with poppy seeds and also cash money to maximize chances of good production every year. Sources in Bajaur Agency told TFT that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islamâs (Fazlur Rehman group) Salarzai area president Maulvi Fazel decreed that poppy cultivation was âIslamic.â Since his decree, the political administration of Bajaur Agency has issued his arrest warrant which forced him to avoid visiting Khar, agency headquarters of Bajaur, to escape arrest. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal MPAs in NWFP Assembly have also backed farmersâ bid in the Kohistan district to grow poppy. The district has seen cultivation for the first time. Malik Fazle Haq, PML (QA)âs Kohistan district president, told TFT that local mullahs issued a fatwa in support of poppy cultivation. Malik Faiz Muhammad Khan of Dogram, an influential chieftain of both Sultankhel and Paindakhel tribes in Upper Dir district and also an active Jamiat-e-Islami leader, defended poppy cultivation during an interview with TFT. âGeneral sahib [President Pervez Musharraf] has got us in the crosshairs to appease the United States,â he said, defending the growers. He said his people would continue to grow poppy unless the government helped them financially. Growing anti-US feelings also seem to have contributed to the increase in land under poppy cultivation. Mr Khan called upon the Muslims to use drugs as an âatom bombâ against the US âsince it attacks only the Muslimâ countries. âMany people think the Muslim world can use drugs as a weapon against the United States,â Jehanzeb Khan, Whari Union Council nazim, told TFT at his residence in Whari in the Dir district. A former councilor, Humayun Khan advocate, told TFT in Chakdara that the mullahs âdid not oppose poppy cultivationâ and also blamed the bureaucracy for encouraging people to grow poppy. He also went on to accuse leaders of different political parties of âusing the poppy issueâ to gain political points. He recalled that the Jamaat-e-Islami in the past used to describe poppy as a âweaponâ against the United States. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #2 Time to bring back napalm. Nothing gets rid of noxious opium poppies (and their growers) like napalm at daybreak! Even Round-up isn't THAT good. Gotta stay upwind, though... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-05-24 12:40:24 |
| #1 Of course, it wasn't destroyed. How do you expect the Pakis to develop the hard currency or something that can be converted into hard currency so they can buy shiny new missile from the Nkors. Jeez the news has been replete with new allegations that the Nkors are using their diplomatic missions as drug depots. Drugs for missiles with an overland route through that good ol' country - China. |
| Posted by: Douglas De Bono 2003-05-24 10:49:36 |