Terror outfits benefitting from drug trade in Af: India tells UN

India has criticised the world body for not doing enough to cut off the drug trade that is financing the Taliban with over a billion dollars as it continues its military operations with the support of Afghanistan’s neighbour.

Terrorist organisations operating in Afghanistan “benefit significantly from criminal networks operating drug cartels and stealing Afghanistan’s natural resources”, India’s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin told the Security Council on Monday during a debate on the situation there.

“The opium produced in Taliban-controlled areas is estimated to account for 85 per cent of global illicit production, valued between $1.5 billion to $3 billion,” he said.

“By some estimates, 60 per cent of the Taliban’s revenues are from the drug trade. Poppy cultivation is said to be the largest cash crop in Taliban-controlled areas,” he added.

Yet the UN has not given adequate attention to the drug trade that is financing the Taliban and other terrorist organisations, Akbaruddin said.

While a Security Council resolution earlier in 2018 focused on the nexus of terrorism, drugs and illegal exploitation of natural resources in Afghanistan, it fell “short of expectations in striving to cripple the Taliban’s drug trade”, he said.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ current report “also fails to address this very key issue in an adequate manner”, he added.

Akbaruddin cited the experience of combating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria where international action cut off its oil trade, reducing it by about 90 per cent, from about $50 million per month to $4 million, over three years.

This successful international campaign against the Islamic State should be replicated in Afghanistan against the Taliban’s drug trade, he said.

Without mentioning Pakistan by name, Akbaruddin hit out against Islamabad for providing safe havens for terrorists to plan and carry out their attacks.