12 June 2004	Saturday	23 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

PESHAWAR, June 11: The smuggling of narcotics has registered a steep rise during the current year, as, according to the figures, the custom officials have seized 2,949 kilograms of narco-stuff in the last five months, officials said.

The authorities had last year seized 1,483.5 kg of hashish, 9.50 kg of opium and three kg of heroin, while in the last five months, the department seized 2,786 kg of hashish, 31 kg of opium, 78 kg of heroin and 54 kg of chemical used in the manufacturing of heroin.

The current year's seizure does not include the consignment of 50 kg heroin seized by the Kuwait customs authorities smuggled from Peshawar and 37 kg of heroin seized by the Airport Security Force at Peshawar airport recently.

Authorities state many reasons in this rise. On the top is a mass-scale cultivation of opium in the Afghanistan. The Taliban militia had banned the cultivation of poppy crop in Afghanistan, they said and added that only in the area remained under the control of Northern Alliance continued sowing the banned crop.

But since the installation of the present government the cultivation of opium and the manufacture of heroin have gone up, they added. Pakistan and Tajikistan were the two main routes from where the heroin was smuggled and that the recent seizure of narcotics by the customs authorities was the outcome of the increase of heroin production in Afghanistan, they opined.

The Russian Ren TV channel has recently alleged that the CIA has been involved in a drug trafficking operation in Afghanistan. In its broadcast "Military Secret" programme said that the CIA had planned the operation long before the US military operation in the country.

The officials said that hashish was getting popular in the Punjab and Sindh provinces. Hashish was, to some extent, socially acceptable in the Frontier region, but it was getting popular in other parts of the country.