Drug cartels fuelling terrorism again: study

Sub-national movements, which were fading in the 1970s in South and South West Asia, are rearing their head again due to their nexus with narcotics smuggling.

According to leading defence analyst Sreedhar, some prominent sub-national movements aided and abetted by narcotics smugglers are militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, the Afghan civil war, the ethnic unrest in Sri Lanka, the United Liberation Front of Asom and Bodo movements, the Mohajir Qaumi Movement in Pakistan and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines.

The Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses's scientist's recent study points out that with Jammu and Kashmir sharing a long border with Pakistan, it has been one of the traditional routes for smuggling narcotics produced in South West Asia to Europe and the United States.

While the J and K militants get their weapons from various sources, a substantial portion of the money for these comes from narcotics smugglers.

The analyst says that the disturbed conditions provide an ideal cover for increasing narcotics smuggling besides enabling the culprits to legitimise much of their ill-begotten money.

As for the Afghan civil war, the study notes that the richest and strongest faction, the Taliban is a typical example of what drug money can do. International media regularly reports about the increase in narcotics crops in the Taliban-controlled area.

The study says that large consignments of refined narcotics are being routed through the Central Asian republics. In May last, one of the Afghan factions reportedly tried to get a high premium for the 700 kg of heroin it had acquired.

Quoting Afghan watchers, the study also says that the Afghan civil war will end as soon as the various narcotics smuggling routes are well policed.

Referring to the ethnic unrest in Sri Lanka, the study notes that the Tamil militants do not lack resources. They have no problem in acquiring arms and ammunition and any political solution to the problem is not acceptable to the Tamil leadership.

Experts also say that the South-East Asian and Western European drug cartels do not allow the Tamils to find an amicable solution to the problem in order to make Sri Lanka a transit point for narcotics smuggling to Europe.

As for militancy in Punjab, the study says that arrested militants have confessed their links with narcotics smuggling. ''Some militant leaders possessed stupendous wealth besides large quantities of drugs.''