ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: The government has successfully stopped poppy cultivation in the country and destroyed its stocks in various areas of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), interior minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat informed the National Assembly on Friday.

In a written reply to a question raised by Maulana Nasib Ali Shah, the minister said the government had been taking all possible measures to prevent poppy cultivation in future.

The federal government, he said, had destroyed poppy crop in Mohmand, Bajaur, Orakzai, North, Kurram and South Waziristan Agencies. Most of the crop was destroyed in the Kurram Agency, he said.

The minister said although the crop in Tirah, Khyber Agency, which was an inaccessible area, could not be destroyed completely this year. However, he said, with the launching of a development project financed by the US government with a focus on opening the area, would enable the government to ensure complete eradication of poppy there next year.

The minister said even before the start of the sowing season 2002-03, the NWFP provincial government had initiated all possible measures to prevent poppy cultivation and held meetings with district governments and the political administration.

Mr Faisal said that the Balochistan government had also banned poppy crop under the Control of Narcotics Substances Act, 1997, and the UN Convention.

He said resistance by some drug barons had been reported in some areas. In an incident a member of the Mohmand Rifles and two tribesmen were killed in an exchange of fire.

“According to an estimate 4,500 tons of opium is being produced annually in Afghanistan which is refined into heroin,” the minister told Dawn.

This drug, he said, was smuggled to the United States, the Persian Gulf states, the Middle East and Far East via Pakistan.

He said government was taking keen interest to beef up border security to control human trafficking and drug smuggling.

The minister said the government, since coming into power, had achieved visible success in controlling acts of terrorism and sectarianism.

“As far as the sectarian terrorism is concerned five incidents took place during the last six months in which 23 people died.