Author:
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: May 14, 2001
Pakistan, during the Soviet intervention
in Afghanistan, had set up a highly developed narcotic producing and trafficking
network under the control of the Inter Services Intelligence and its army
which it still uses to finance militants in Jammu and Kashmir, a leading
Russian daily reported.
"The trafficking was used to finance
the Afghan mujahideen and Kashmiri separatists, while part of the proceeds
went to top Pakistani bureaucrats and the practice continues," Nezavisimaya
Gazeta reported.
"In the years of Soviet-United States
rivalry, Islamabad could indulge in heroin trade without problems, but
with the break-up of the USSR, the situation radically changed," it said.
Fearing international isolation,
Islamabad "hurriedly invented" the Taleban militia as a cover-up for its
narcotics trade, which is also the basis of its prosperity, wrote the daily.
"About 3000 Pakistanis, mostly belonging
to the regular army, are fighting for the Taleban. They plan major Taleban
operations, co-ordinate espionage activities and organise deliveries of
arms and ammunition into Afghanistan. Pakistanis are also the backbone
of the Taleban Air Force," the daily wrote.
About 80 per cent of the Afghan
economy is mainly involved in growing poppy, which is taken to Pakistan's
narcotics-producing town of Chutta for processing, the daily wrote, explaining
why in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions against
Taleban, Islamabad is giving all-round support to the Taleban.
PTI
