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Increase in heroin being smuggled from Pakistan
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05 March 2008
New Delhi, India
Indian law enforcement agencies are seizing an ever-increasing quantity of heroin from the Indo-Pakistan border indicating a rise in trafficking of contraband from its neighbouring nations through the country, a United Nations report has said. According to the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board released on Wednesday, the quantity of heroin entering India from Pakistan and Afghanistan has increased in the year 2007.
However, the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) has said that there is no evidence to suggest that Maoists are involved in illegal drug business but, on the other hand, they may be extracting money from the farmers who illegally cultivate poppy.
"There is absolutely no report to corroborate (the allegation). We have some anecdotal reports, media reports about it, but nothing concrete," NCB director general K.C. Verma said while speaking to reporters after releasing the report.
He said he had visited Jharkhand after such reports but could not find any evidence for such allegations.
"I have toured the state along with senior officials after reports that Maoists were involved in drug trafficking. But we did not find any conclusive evidence," Mr Verma said. Maoist groups, spread over seven states in the country, have been accused of minting money for their organisations by indulging in drug trafficking.
Meanwhile, the United Nations report has raised concern over the huge quantities of heroin being trafficked in the northwestern part of India - originating in Afghanistan and Pakistan and en route to Europe via Pakistan and India.
The report also raised concern over Indian heroin becoming increasingly available in Bangladesh, and noted that there is evidence that Europe-bound heroin are increasingly passing through the country.
The United Nations report explained that heroin is trafficked to Bangladesh through various means - by courier, by commercial vehicles or train along the route leading from India and by sea via Bay of Bengal or overland by truck or public transport along a route leading from Burma to Bangladesh.
