Calm LoC spurs drug trafficking

In the wake of increased trans-border civilian movement between India and Pakistan, smuggling of drugs into India has shown a significant rise.

Figures available with the Narcotics Control Bureau reveal that 30 per cent of the drugs seized in the country during the last three years were produced in the remote areas of Afghanistan and reached India through the Indo-Pak border.

Anti-narcotics squads in the country seized over 1000 kg of Afghan-origin heroin and other drugs since 2002 as compared to around 50 kg recovered during the height of Indo-Pak tensions in the preceding years, a senior United Nations official said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

"The Confidence Building Measures adopted by India and Pakistan have led to movement of more people across the border and this can be one reason for the increase," said Gary Lewis, the South Asia representative of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Officials say drug addiction among youngsters in Punjab was on a rise and pointed out that that this was due to the flow of heroin and other drugs into the state from Pakistan for distribution across the country.

According to UN figures, opium cultivation in Afghanistan had gone up in the recent years and the war-torn nation had produced a whopping 11,900 metric ton of opium in the last three years. Pakistan also cultivates opium, though in a smaller scale, and produced around 180 metric ton of the drug in the last three years, the figures show.