Kabul, Dec. 6 (TNS): Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak said on Wednesday that 50 percent of the country’s drugs are trafficked through Pakistan.
Iran is next major transit country for narcotics produced in Afghanistan, with 25 percent. A further four percent are trafficked through the country’s airports while the remaining are transported via northern borders.
Barmak said that fight against drugs is among priorities in the four-year strategy of the ministry.
Afghanistan produces majority of world’s opium. Production jumped 87 percent in the country this year.
Khaleel Bakhtyar, the deputy minister of counter-narcotics, cited lack of capacity as a problem.
“One counter-narcotics police is facing 200 smugglers,” he said during an event to burn seized drugs in Kabul.
U.S. and Afghan forces recently launched a campaign targeting facilities of drugs, which is considered also major source Taliban funding.
Barmak said that addressing the problem drugs is not possible in Afghanistan alone and urged other countries to cooperate.
