`Narcotics trade helps ISI fund terrorism in India`

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`Narcotics trade helps ISI fund terrorism in India`

Jammu, Sept 12:

ZeeNews

http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=468487&sid=NAT

 

Pakistan's ISI is using the money from narcotics trade to fund terrorist activities in India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, a senior officer of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has said.

 

"More than 25 percent of the money spent on terrorist activities in India by the ISI comes from the narcotics drug trade," said M K Sharma, NCB Zonal Director, Jammu and Kashmir.

 

Besides providing weapons, he said the Pakistani agency pays a fixed monthly salary to militants in J&K. This is to the tune of Rs 30 crore a month, he said.

 

"In fact, right from 1947 to 2003, the ISI, Army and the Pakistan government are together in 'Operation Terrorism', be it in J&K, Punjab or in Assam," he said, delivering a lecture on ‘Narco-terrorism: Concerns and Challenges in Jammu and Kashmir’ last night.

 

Referring to the cultivation of poppy and cannabis in J&K, especially in south Kashmir districts of Pulwama and Anantnag, Sharma said though licenses have been issued to cultivators in the areas, they "misuse" it. “The geography of the region gives it ample scope to have a good crop of cannabis which grows wild in these areas," he said.

 

Sharma said 90 percent of the world's illicit opium comes from the Golden Triangle (Laos, Burma and Thailand) and Golden Crescent (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran).

 

Bureau Report