Taliban and Pakistan military collaborating for narcotic trade

Brussels: Pakistan Army, the ISI and the Taliban are involved in international drug trafficking. NATO, in its report, has alleged that the terrorist organizations in Afghanistan and Pakistan are heavily dependent on the money from illicit drug trafficking. To substantiate its claims, the report cites cases of multiple arrests of Pakistani nationals on drug trafficking charges in different countries around the world over the last few months.

Moreover, NATO’s Defence Education Enhancement Program (DEEP) has prepared a special report to raise security concerns due to drug trafficking worldwide. It highlights the Taliban and Pakistan Army’s significant share in drug trafficking. The NATO report has alleged that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI has been instrumental in bringing the Pakistan army and terrorist organizations together for drug trafficking.

David R Winston, the lead author of the report, said that the ISI had joined with terrorist organizations to build a drug trafficking network and carry out large-scale trafficking. Winston claimed in his report that terrorist organizations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan Army, and ISI depend on money from the illegal drug trade. Winston pointed out that Narco-terror around the world is gaining strength.

The Afghanistan-Pakistan narcotic network, terrorist and radical groups that depend on illicit trade, and collaboration with the Pakistan Army are creating hurdles in the democracy and security of the region, including that of Afghanistan. The report claims that the Taliban would not have had the power to overthrow Ghani’s government in Afghanistan had it not been for Afghanistan’s drug cultivation and the markets developed on the global level. For the past few years, drug trafficking through Afghanistan has been reduced. But after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, drug trafficking increased worldwide. A special group of the United Nations warned in its report that almost 85% of the total drug trafficking in the world originates from Afghanistan alone.

Drugs are smuggled through the 2,400 kilometres long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Winston warned in this report that the drug trafficking originating from Afghanistan, which the Pakistan Army supports, needs to be stopped urgently.