Dhaka, Dec 5 (IANS) The rise in poppy cultivation across Pakistan's Balochistan province has emerged as a serious regional security threat marked by collapsing governance, murky lines between state-non-state actors and a narcotics market reshaped by Afghanistan’s opium ban, a report said on Friday.
According to a report in Bangladeshi outlet 'Blitz', if not addressed, this surge would deepen addiction within Pakistan, fund cross-border violence, and undermine the stability of an already fragile region.
Citing a recent investigation by the American newspaper Financial Times, it stated that, with Afghan stockpiles dwindling, Pakistan has now become one of the world's largest suppliers of opium.
Senior figures in the insurgency-hit province, particularly near the Afghan border, warned that Balochistan is rapidly becoming a key hub of the global opium network – with profound social, economic, and security consequences for Pakistan and the wider region.
"Islamabad insists that it is responding firmly to this growth. The anti-narcotics force, local police units, and provincial authorities have all announced major crackdowns on poppy cultivation and drug dens. These operations have reportedly been launched on the instructions of the army chief and the provincial government. Yet the situation on the ground suggests a far more troubling reality," the report detailed
"According to interviews and testimonies documented by international and Pakistani media outlets, as well as field reporting by organisations such as the Afghanistan Analyst Network, Afghan farmers who migrated to Balochistan to grow poppy say that Pakistani officials and militia groups do not stop cultivation; instead, they allow it to continue in exchange for bribes," it added.
The report stressed that the situation raises serious questions about how such a vast illicit economy can thrive in a province where the Pakistani military exerts overwhelming control through frequent surveillance, counterinsurgency operations, and population-monitoring campaigns.
"The argument that Balochistan's rugged terrain or insurgent activity prevents effective state action rings hollow, especially when the same security forces routinely carry out targeted raids, detentions, and airstrikes in these very districts. If the Taliban – operating with limited resources and no conventional army – could enforce a near-total ban on poppy cultivation across Afghanistan, it strains credibility to suggest that Pakistan’s far more sophisticated military-intelligence apparatus is unaware of the fields blossoming on its own soil," the report noted
--IANS
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