Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif said on Monday that the nexus between drug dealers, financiers and perpetrators of terrorism will be broken. Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif issued the statement while visiting the headquarters of the Anti-Narcotic Force (ANF) where he was given a detailed briefing of the various aspects of ANF’s counter drug smuggling operations by Director General (DG) ANF Major General Khawar Hanif.General Raheel said drug peddlers and those involved in its production are as detrimental to national security as terrorists. He added that drug money is being used for the promotion of terrorism and it is therefore important that drug dealers are dealt with iron hands.General Raheel appreciated ANF’s endeavors that saw a record number of drug seizures in 2014 and 2015. He also valued the achievements of the force in earning Pakistan the status of a poppy-free nation.The connection Sharif drew between drug money and terrorism is not off the mark, given that the opium trade is well-known to be one of the sources of funding for the Afghan Taliban during their periods in power and out of it. However, the connection in Pakistan has not been made with similar clarity as yet, with little to no details having been released regarding the relationship between TTP commanders and the drug trade. While it is clear that the COAS was addressing the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) headquarters in Rawalpindi, the same message had been delivered earlier by Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, who claimed that Pakistan was winning its war on drugs. Sharif noted that the ANF had seized record amounts of drugs in the last two years and helped maintain the Poppy Free Status for Pakistan, which means that there is no opium being produced inside Pakistan. Generations are certainly lost to high-end drugs and cutting of the drug supply chain would be a key mechanism to break the funding sources for a number of terrorist groups. The fight against drugs is, however, not going as strong as we may tend to believe. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) has estimated that at least 20 tonnes of pure heroin is consumed in Pakistan each year. Most of this heroin comes in through the Afghan circuit, with estimates that much of the heroin production goes through Pakistan for global distribution. The army has claimed to have destroyed a number of drug producing and processing units during the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb, but the availability of high-end opiates in the Pakistani market place remains fairly common. The message of the COAS is that if Pakistan can eliminate drugs, it can eliminate terrorism. The target then needs to be drug peddlers and less drugs users. What need to be addressed are the causes for consumption, which remain rampant poverty and joblessness.
pk.shafaqna.com
