Cross-border narco-terror

The seizure on Sunday of almost 65 kg of heroin floating in the Ravi is yet another reminder of how drugs are pushed from Pakistan into India. In June last year, 500 kg of heroin was seized at the Attari border check-post. Such large consignments cannot move without the involvement of various official agencies in Pakistan, and it has been an open secret that Punjabis in particular, and Indians in general, have been targeted by the military-intelligence complex across the border.

Pakistan is already on the grey list of the terror financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It is just a step away from being publicly censured like North Korea and Iran. FATF has left itself open to criticism by focusing on a narrow interpretation of terrorism, and its rather bureaucratic interpretation of the steps needed for a nation to comply with its requirements that primarily centre on plugging the holes in terror financing, along with activities of UN-designated terrorists.

The narco-terror nexus is an old one. There have been enough instances when it has been proved that the activities of active terrorist groups in Kashmir, and the rest of the country, received money from the proceeds of the sale of narcotics brought across the border. In fact, aiding, abetting and pushing drugs into India serve not only to weaken the border states, where their availability feeds addiction, but also in opening conduits that are used for smuggling weapons and even sending terrorists across the border. There is a need to resist the tendency to treat such seizures as merely a law and order issue. Each such attempt is a breach of national security. The non-state and state actors across the border must be identified, and such seizures must be used to demonstrate the nefarious terrorist activities of our western neighbour. Our diplomats must fully brief FATF and other international fora, and international pressure must be brought to bear on the regime that allows, rather facilitates, narco-terror on this horrific scale.

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