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Drug addicts in Pakistan want Taleban to stay

Ajit Jain in Toronto

At least 1.5 million Pakistanis would go to any extent to support the Taleban, as the militia supplies them with cheap heroin -- Rs 30 for a hit that could cost a bundle in Canada, an report in Thursday Globe and Mail said.

A drug addict in Peshawar, Altanlah Khan, reportedly said: "It is the truth, and it is the Muslims who are selling this drug to other Muslims."

"The Taleban have recently announced (they will) allow the people to cultivate (poppies) on their land if America attacks them," Pakistani paper The News, was quoted as saying. "Afghans, who had a huge quantity of stored opium, are trying to sell their stock."

"There are believed to be 1.5 million heroin addicts in this nation of 150 million, making it the most heroin-ravaged country in the world. Another two million Pakistanis are addicted to opium and hashish ..."

The Canadian paper claimed that the problem had worsened with the rise of Islamic extremism.

When 20 years ago, General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq banned the consumption of alcohol, many Pakistanis "switched to the cheap heroin that flowed in from Afghanistan .. (as) there is nothing specific in the Quran about drugs," the report said.

"We know alcohol is forbidden. But poppy is allowed. This is why it is okay to smoke opium," Amir Shah, a hotel worker and another addict, was quoted as saying.

The Taleban had allowed cultivation of poppy seeds to flood the Western markets. This is another issue that the United States has to tackle, argued Prof Ashok Kapoor, head of Political Science at Waterloo University (Ontario) at a recent seminar on Afghanistan held at the University of Toronto.

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