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Clerics issue decree against poppy cultivation

By Azizullah Khan

QUETTA: Clerics from 23 districts of Balochistan on Sunday issued a fatwa against illegal poppy cultivation, decreeing smuggling and using drugs like hashish and heroin etc un-Islamic.

The decree was issued in a seminar organised by Anti Narcotics Force at a local five star hotel where the clerics. Maulana Attaur Rehman said Islam prohibited use of any narcotics or alcohol that affected the mind. He said that there were about 0.2 million addicts in Pakistan in the 1980s and the number increased to 4 million. The number of addicts in Balochistan had increased to 35,000.

Some experts suggested sentencing people involved in the illegal drugs business to at least 80 lashes. The clerics said a large amount of drugs was smuggled to European countries via Pakistan and Iran while experts highlighted in the seminar that Afghanistan was the major producer of opium in the region. According to official estimates, opium was cultivated on about 80,000 acres in Afghanistan in 2003, a figure that had increased to 131,000 acres in 2004.

They said the United States had given $73 million to Pakistan in 2003 for the protection of its borders with Afghanistan. It had provided vehicles and equipment too, to protect the border.

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