UNODC says Afghan opium poppy cultivation has grown by 49 percent

The Rack: "The A-Team Killings," Matthieu Aikins (Rolling Stone). 

Record high 

Illicit opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has hit a record high this year, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported on Wednesday (BBC, Pajhwok, Reuters, RFE/RL, VOA).  In its annual report on drugs in Afghanistan, the office said that the 2013 poppy harvest resulted in approximately 5,500 metric tons of opium – a 49 percent increase over last year and more than the combined output of the rest of the world.  The report added that the increase comes from the fact that the area where the crop is being cultivated in Afghanistan grew by 36 percent, and Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the outgoing UNODC Afghanistan director, noted that: "This is the third consecutive year of increasing cultivation" (Guardian). 

While the vast majority of the country’s poppy growing takes place in the southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan, areas where the Taliban has influence, provinces that have seen "past successes in combating poppy cultivation saw those trends reverse" this year (AP).  UNODC officials warned that the increases will likely continue as international assistance drops off and Afghans turn to more reliable, yet illicit, sources of income.   

The UNODC report was released one day after Afghan authorities destroyed more than 10 tons of drugs and thousands of bottles of alcohol on a mountainside outside of Kabul (AFP). According to Baz Mohammad Ahmadi, the deputy interior minister for counternarcotic programs, the drugs had been seized from smugglers over the past 10 months and included 2,000 kg. of opium, 400 kg. of heroin, 1,200 kg. of morphine, and more than 10,000 kg. of hashish.  

Taliban ties

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the Zurmat Material Testing Laboratory in Afghanistan, a company that had been blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce Department in April 2012 and banned from working on contracts within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility that September, was paid to do work at an American-controlled facility just two months later – highlighting the difficulty U.S. forces have had trying to ensure American taxpayer dollars aren’t inadvertently funding the insurgency (NYT).  The Zurmat lab is part of the Zurmat Group, an organization that has been accused of helping the militant Haqqani network obtain bomb-making materials.  Pentagon officials, however, have refused to issue the bans, arguing that the accusations come from classified information, which cannot be shown to the contractors, violating their due process.  As a result, Zurmat and several other blacklisted contractors have been awarded more than $150 million over a 10-year period. 

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) has abandoned its investigation into the murder of 17 Afghan civilians, allegedly at the hands of U.S. Special Forces soldiers, in Wardak province, Reuters reported on Tuesday (Reuters).  According to a September 23 report recently obtained by the wire service, the NDS has requested to speak to the U.S. Green Berets and Afghan translators who were with the troops at that time, but has been repeatedly rebuffed and without the U.S.’s cooperation, "this process cannot be completed."  The 17 men disappeared after being detained in U.S. raids that occurred between October 2012 and February 2013; the bodies of 10 of them were found by residents earlier this summer in shallow graves near the U.S. soldiers’ base.  U.S. military officials have not yet commented on this new report, though they have repeatedly said their investigations into the incident have shown no signs of U.S. involvement.  

Karachi raid 

At least three suspected Pakistani Taliban militants were killed in Karachi on Wednesday during a shootout with Pakistani security forces (BBC, Dawn).  According to officials, the incident occurred in the Gulshan-i-Buner section of the city, considered by many to be one of the most lawless, during a raid by the paramilitary Sindh Rangers, one of whom was also killed.  Security officers told Pakistan’s Express Tribune that several Taliban hideouts had been raided after they had received a tip that the militants were planning an attack for the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar (ET). 

In a separate incident, three suspected militants were killed and two police officials were injured in northwestern Pakistan earlier Wednesday morning when the militants attacked a police checkpoint in Bannu (ET).  Gul Raoof Khan, a local police official, told reporters that the alleged militants had assaulted the outpost with rockets and assault rifles.  The two injured officials are reportedly in stable condition.  Several other explosions occurred in the country’s northwest regions, near a police checkpoint in Jamrud and near a police convoy in Peshawar, suggesting a level of coordination, though no one has claimed responsibility for the incidents (Dawn). 

The number of polio cases in Pakistan this year officially surpassed last year’s total this week, as officials reported that 62 people have been infected by the crippling virus (Dawn).  In 2012, there were 58 polio cases in the country; Pakistan is one of three nations where the disease remains endemic.  While most of the outbreaks have occurred in Pakistan’s tribal regions, where polio vaccination teams are often banned from working, cases are beginning to emerge in other parts of the country as wel
l.  So far, 19 polio cases have been reported in North Waziristan, 17 in Khyber, 9 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 6 each in Bannu and Punjab, and 4 in Sindh.  

Howard the cat

Howard, a young, playful, black cat who was found in Afghanistan by Capt. Alan Barker, a British soldier, earlier this year will soon join Barker and his family in the United Kingdom (Digital Journal).  According to Barker, he found Howard – named after Barker’s old unit "The Green Howards" – injured and in desperate need of urgent care near Kabul and took him to the Nowzad animal sanctuary.  Now that Howard has recovered, Barker has raised £2,000 (nearly $3,200) to pay for a passport for the cat and ensure that he has completed the necessary checks to make the long journey to his new home.

— Bailey Cahall