Pathankot and Malda are 2,500 Km apart and were the hotbed
of terror recently. What do you think was common in between the two? They both
are border towns guarded by officials who are paid peanuts and expected to be
of impeccable morals! First the exchanges across the border are benign like
sugar, vegetables and food stuff, then it becomes perfumes and pirated
Bollywood movie DVDs, then alcoholic beverages and finally, once a weak link in
the chain is identified and the price of his morals ascertained the smuggled
items are narcotics and other drugs of abuse. By now, money traps and honey
traps succeed in trapping the weak links into a blackmailing web and the last
logical stuffs to be smuggled across the border are arms and terrorists.
Illicit drug traders and terrorists are not some mysterious
entity. Rather they are usually groups and networks that operate in ways that
can be understood, identified, tracked and ultimately disrupted, but there has
to be a will to do so. If states start utilizing them to appease a section of
the population by closing their eyes to illicit opium cultivation, eliminating
all police records by burning police stations and allowing unauthorized
immigration as seen in Kaliachak in Malda, and eliminate all evidence of arms
trail and terror as seen in Burdwan in recent past, we are looking down the
barrel of the gun called ‘narco-terrorism’! We need to integrate our work to
build up more effective and efficient networks so that we may defeat these
illegitimate networks that perpetuate so much destruction throughout the world
and this remains a far more important aim than winning the next election by
changing the demography of a state.
All terrorist organizations need to raise funds to sustain
their violent activities and resort to illegal means to finance their illegal
acts. Drug trafficking comes at the top of this list of illegal money raising
activities. Terrorism and crime are inextricably linked. International and
Domestic Terrorism Organizations and their supporters engage in a myriad of
crimes to fund and facilitate terrorist activities. These crimes include
extortion, kidnaping, robbery, corruption, alien smuggling, document fraud,
arms trafficking, cyber crime, white collar crime, smuggling of contraband,
money laundering and certainly drug trafficking and arms trafficking. Where do
you think the Maoists are getting their Chinese and Pakistani arms from?
Worldwide economic, political, social, and technological
changes have resulted in a more dispersed, complex, asymmetric threat to our
nation. Terrorists, criminals, and foreign intelligence collectors have
significantly benefited from these rapid changes, which have permanently shrunk
the world. The result is a world that is more integrated with activities that
are significantly less discrete. Terrorist acts, crime, and foreign
intelligence activities are no longer distinct activities, but rather profound
fluid enterprises that through their very existence have a reverberating impact
on our national security. Terrorism and crime respect no borders and threaten
civilized countries throughout the world.
India is not unique to this design. Internationally drug
trafficking and terrorism go hand in hand and today even the United Nations
recognizes it. Drug trafficking has provided funding for insurgency in various regions throughout the world. In
some cases, drugs have even been the currency used in the commission of
terrorist attacks, as was the case in the Madrid bombings.
The ties between international terrorist organizations and
drug trafficking varies greatly from organization to organization. For example,
the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), aka the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, is strongly tied to drug trafficking in Colombia and
their objective is to overthrow the established order in Colombia and replace
it with a socialist dictatorship. The Shining Path cut a brutal swath through
Peru from the 1980s to the mid-1990s, largely funded by levies the group
assessed on cocaine trafficking. The Al-Ittihad al-Islami, or AIAI, Somalia's
largest militant Islamic organization, is suspected of smuggling an illegal
narcotic leaf known as Khat ("cot") into the United States. Proceeds
from East African Khat sales are likely remitted to Middle Eastern banks via Hawala
network and wire services. All terror organizations without exception, have a
drug peddling side arm whether they are our own Kashmiri militant groups, or
the now dead Khalistani terrorists, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
(IMU) in Central Asia, Hizballah in Middle East, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
in Turkey and Iraq, Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) in Spain….. you name
it.
Historically, Afghanistan has been a major source of heroin
throughout the world. The heroin, grown and processed in Afghanistan and
Pakistan is channeled through conduit countries including India to the U.S.
Profits from the sale of the heroin are then laundered through Afghan and
Pakistani owned businesses and then sent back to associates of terrorist
organizations. Criminal and financial links to the Taliban regime and their
involvement with Al-Qa'ida are well established.
Links between terrorist organizations and drug traffickers
take many forms, ranging from facilitation protection, transportation, and
taxation - to direct trafficking by the terrorist organization itself in order
to finance its activities. Traffickers and terrorists have similar logistical
needs in terms of material and the covert movement of goods, people and money.
Drug traffickers benefit from the terrorists' military skills, weapons supply,
and access to clandestine organizations. Terrorists gain a source of revenue
and expertise in illicit transfer and laundering of proceeds from illicit
transactions. Both groups bring corrupt officials whose services provide mutual
benefits, such as greater access to fraudulent documents, including passports
and customs papers. Drug traffickers may also gain considerable freedom of
movement when they operate in conjunction with terrorists who control large
amounts of territory. So this is a perfect symbiosis and if state fails to nip
at the bud and use terrorism as a state policy to bleed the neighbours, then no
policy can be more short sighted than this one, as Cuba, Iran, Pakistan and
Libya have learnt it the hard way.
“Charitable” and other non-governmental front organizations
are used by worldwide terrorist organizations, such as al Qaeda and Hizballah,
to channel funds to their affiliated terrorist groups. The Saudi-based
International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) is an example. Not only does
it provide funds, it also furthers the strategic objectives of the terrorists.
This is a global battle and it cannot be won in Pathankot
and Malda……..but the fight has to start from there. The state cannot brush its
hands off the menace and shrug helplessly. A brutal response is needed and laws
against drug smuggling should be such that the justice delivered is swift and
punishment is nothing short of capital!
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