As SCO head, India seeks to curb Afghanistan drug menace

New Delhi, February 27

India under its Chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will seek to work on curbing the drug menace which has reached an all time high in Afghanistan after the US forces pulled out of Kabul in August 2021.

Bearing the brunt

Barring China, all other members, including India, Iran, Russia and Pakistan, are reeling under the menace of drugs transported from Afghanistan

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Drugs from Afghanistan, according to security officials, are making their way via drones and shipping consignments into India. Some of these have been transported from Punjab to Jammu & Kashmir to fund terrorism.

The SCO members and observers comprise of countries that are the first to face the brunt of increased drug production in Afghanistan. Barring China, all other members, including India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, reel under the menace of drugs transported from Afghanistan. It helps that Afghanistan is one of the observers and is aspiring for full membership of SCO.

The stupendous rise in drug production in Afghanistan after the Americans packed up from Kabul is also substantiated by a report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). “Seizure events collected by UNODC’s Drugs Monitoring Platform suggests that opiate trafficking from Afghanistan has been ongoing since August 2021. Afghan opiates reach 80 per cent of all users in the world,” it said.

In 2022, the opium crop in Afghanistan was the most profitable in years with cultivation up by nearly one-third and prices soaring, it said in the first report post Taliban takeover.