Pakistan faces multidimensional and multidirectional threats, including tangible military threats from across its borders and vile, transnational terrorist attacks emanating from Afghanistan and Iran. This situation is further compounded by the relentless fifth-generation warfare (5GW) that India and other detractors have launched against it.
Pakistan is also grappling with a gruesome “opioids invasion” from Afghanistan, targeting not only its society but also its educational institutions. Is this “opioids invasion” merely a sordid trade, or is it actually a sub-set of the 5GW aimed at Pakistan’s vulnerable underbelly, designed to destroy its next generations? Does the narco-trade also provide a vital financial lifeline to the terrorist groups operating against Pakistan? Is this trade facilitating these twin objectives?
The unholy nexus between the narcotics/opioids trade and terrorism is well established. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), operating under the patronage of the Taliban-led Afghan government, conducts cross-border operations into Pakistan. Despite being well-funded by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and other hostile intelligence agencies, it still relies heavily on narco-funds to sustain itself and its terrorist activities. To that end, it depends on poppy cultivation, drug trafficking, and extortion money. The major poppy cultivation areas and drug-producing laboratories are generally located in Afghan provinces adjoining Pakistan and Iran. Unsurprisingly, most of the terrorist attacks by the TTP and other groups occur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.
It is therefore vital for Pakistan to break this trilateral linkage between narcotics/opioids, narco-funds, and terrorism. Currently, Pakistan’s counterterrorism and counter-narcotics strategies appear to be operating on parallel tracks. It has now become imperative to develop a critical overlap in these two strategies to achieve common aims and objectives: drying up the narco-funds that sustain terrorist groups like the TTP and throttling the smuggling of narcotics/opioids into Pakistan. Could the neutralisation of Afghanistan’s narcotics/opioids-producing capacity become an inevitable part of the counterterrorism strategy? Can a combined, consolidated, and mutually supporting two-pronged counterterrorism and counter-opioids strategy enable Pakistan to simultaneously defeat terrorism and blunt the onslaught of narcotics/opioids into its society?
Pakistan must therefore adopt a whole-of-the-nation and whole-of-government approach to deal with this threat. It must tackle the narcotics/opioids trade along the entire length of its supply chain. Its comprehensive, coordinated plan of action must involve the Foreign Office, all relevant ministries, the military, civil armed forces, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), intelligence agencies, and civil society. The Taliban-led Afghan government must be recognised for reducing poppy cultivation by 95% and given further incentives to destroy the narco-laboratories, which have now shifted to producing synthetic drugs like methamphetamine. If it is unable to do so, an international campaign through the United Nations, other international organisations, and the media may be launched to achieve this goal. Furthermore, the poppy fields, heroin and synthetic drug manufacturing laboratories, and the drug transit and distribution networks logically qualify as legitimate counterterrorism targets, along with the safe havens of terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
Pakistan must initiate aerial surveillance through drones, satellites, etc., to track the opioids from their origin—the poppy fields. It must then monitor the laboratories where plant-based and synthetic drugs are refined and produced in bulk. The transportation networks and methodologies employed to transport them must also be blocked. All cross-border smuggling routes must remain under relentless observation to track the drugs to their intended destinations within the country and abroad. The distributors and handlers who devise, control, and manage the drug distribution networks must be identified and brought to swift justice. It is imperative that all elements along the entire supply chain of opioids production, transportation/smuggling, and distribution are engaged and neutralised simultaneously, not piecemeal. Sustained efforts in this direction may produce the desired results.
All tiers of government, as well as educational institutions, must agree on a proactive plan of action to not only deny drug pushers access to society in general and students in particular but also to ensure exemplary punishments for all those involved in this repugnant business. Teachers at all levels must be able to recognise the tell-tale signs of drug abuse in students and alert the school or college authorities and their parents accordingly. The debilitating effects of drug abuse must become an essential part of school and college curricula, with properly trained psychiatrists and psychologists visiting, interacting with, and counselling students, teachers, and parents at regular intervals. Media and parents must be actively involved in drug abuse awareness campaigns. CCTV cameras must monitor the surroundings of each institution, and civil intelligence agencies must allocate resources for surveillance of educational institutions. There must be a police presence around all institutions during school hours. Drug pushers and their handlers must face speedy trials in special courts and be brought to justice promptly. Pakistan must ensure that no precursor chemicals are illegally imported by any Afghan entity through the Afghanistan–Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), especially from India. Critically, the cyber dimension is enabling the supply of drugs/opioids through the dark web, social media networks, and courier services. Cryptocurrencies are also in vogue in the local opioids trade, and these avenues need to be summarily blocked.
The ANF, the bulwark against this opioids invasion, is already deeply engaged in its herculean task. Of late, it has achieved remarkable successes in seizing huge quantities of drugs/opioids and breaking many networks. The annihilation of the complete drug supply chain, emanating from Afghanistan and ending in our society and educational institutions, should be the common objective of both counterterrorism and counter-opioids strategies. If achieved, it will deny critical narco-funds to the terrorist groups while throttling the flow of drugs into Pakistan. That would be a genuine win-win situation for the country.
Imran Malik
The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan Army. He can be reached at im.k846@gmail.com and tweets @K846Im.