70 per cent of Afghan narcotics travel through Pakistan
The Director General, Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), Pakistan, Major General Nadeem Ahmad, has said that nearly 70 percent of narcotics manufactured in Afghanistan are either smuggled into or transited through Pakistan.
Speaking at the international expert roundtable conference organised by the ANF under the Paris Pact Initiative, the director general revealed that currently an area of over 131,000 hectares was under poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.
The total yield was estimated at 4,200 tonnes, which could produce 360 metric tonnes of heroine, The Daily Times quoted him as saying.
The DG ANF said that it is because of the continuous efforts of the government and the ANF, that the international community had realised that Pakistan was the worst sufferer from the inflow of narcotics from Afghanistan.
After the ouster of the Taliban, poppy cultivation has reached a record high in Afghanistan, and this conference would suggest ways and means to control the inflow of huge quantity of drugs into Pakistan, the DG said.
Speaking on the same occasion, Pakistan’s minister for narcotics control, Ghaus Bux Mahar, said that the opium production in Afghanistan had broken all previous records and the area of poppy cultivation has jumped from 80,000 hectares in 2003 to 206,700 hectares in 2004.
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Politics: 19 August 2005, Friday.
Bulgarian police busted a major shipment of a substance used to make synthetic drugs. They believe that the produce would have been shipped to the Middle East.
The seized amphetamine base is enough to make 300,000 amphetamine pills, worth six million dollars, the police said.
Arrested S.T., 32, is suspected of running a drug lab near Sofia. His house in the village of Malo Buchino was raided by policemen to discover various substances used in narcotics making.
According to media reports, the suspect was an ally of late underworld leader Bozhidar Dobrev.
Officials believe that the latter was a key
Talking to a private television on Saturday, AJK prime minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan said, "Our brothers and sisters coming to us are free to visit the place of their choice. They are our guests and they could go everywhere they want." He regretted AJK inhabitants had to face certain travel restriction during their stay in Indian controlled Kashmir .
He said he was grateful to Islamabad for doling out requisite funds to Muzaffarabad for developing Azad Kashmir territories .
Sardar Sikandar said, "as for development works, territories under the Indian occupation lag far behind what we own. And this
Pakistan, India on US drug list
India and Pakistan figure in the list of 20 countries which the United States has designated as major drug- transit or illicit drug-producing countries.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Christy McCampbell, while briefing the press yesterday after the White House, released the findings of the annual US government report on the global drug trade, said, to be designated on the majors list does not necessarily mean that the country is supporting drug-trafficking or lacking in counter- narcotics efforts.
The designation is simple, which comes from a combination of geographical, commercial
LIMA, Peru --Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, seeking to promote stability in Latin America, met with Alejandro Toledo on Thursday just two days after the Peruvian president swore in a fresh Cabinet.
"We recognize and respect the leadership role that you have taken in this country politically and from an economic standpoint as well as a security standpoint," Rumsfeld told Toledo.
The Peruvian president, who is facing low approval ratings and allegations of corruption in his government, was forced to ask 16 of his Cabinet ministers to step down last week. Under Peru's constitution, Toledo had to take such action after Prime
Taliban travel rocky road back to Afghanistan
Two men sat in the governor's garden recently, in this unruly province bordering Pakistan, smiling and nodding as they chatted with him. The men are former members of the Taliban who have taken advantage of offers of amnesty in exchange for returning from exile in Pakistan.
"The Taliban are also part of the Afghan population," said the urbane governor of Khost Province, Merajuddin Pathan, explaining why he had welcomed these former Taliban officials. "We want to bring them back for the future of our country and stability. It is very simple.
"If they accept our laws
