KARACHI, June 26: Pakistani authorities on Sunday voiced concern at the rise in opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, saying the increase is fuelling addiction among Pakistanis.

The increasing poppy cultivation has “serious implications” in Pakistan, Brigadier Firzok Attaullah, chief of the Pakistan Coastguards, told reporters after setting ablaze more than six tonnes of drugs to mark the UN’s international day against drug abuse.

“Due to the increase in poppy cultivation to a great extent in Afghanistan, the movement of drugs through traditional routes has alarmingly maximised,” said Brig Attaullah.

The drugs torched included 6.25 tonnes of hashish, about 18 kilograms of heroin and a huge amount of poppies. The drugs were seized over the past year.

“What we have burnt is not even an iota of narcotics spread in the world today,” Brig Attaullah said.

“The narcotics menace is a threat to every society so it is the duty of every society to work hand in hand with each other to save the young generation from falling prey to this menace.”

A senior official of the army-led Anti-Narcotics Force, Brigadier Farooq Shaukat, said Pakistan was worried that some four million of its 150 million people are drug addicts and many are hooked to heroin.

“Pakistan has every reason to be concerned over the fact that its war-torn neighbour had recorded the highest level of poppy production last year,” he said.

“Afghanistan produced around 87 per cent of the total poppies cultivated worldwide last year and this is certainly affecting our country.”

Traffickers often use Pakistan as transit point for drugs from Afghanistan where opium poppy cultivation rose to a near-record 4,200 tonnes in 2004 from 3,200 tonnes in 2003.-—AFP