Compensation first: The big fuss over destroying poppies

Elders of Madakhel tribe refuse to eradicate the crop without being compensated.

ABBOTABAD:

Tribal elders of the Madakhel tribe in Torghar district announced their refusal to destroy poppy crop unless they are compensated by the government at a jirga held in Kandar on Wednesday.

According to locals and revenue department sources, the farmers belonging to Madakhel tribe cultivated the crop on over 100 kanals this year. Some of the land including the crop, they added, is the property of 11 police and eight Levy officials.

At the jirga, Nawab Khan of Madakhel tribe said that the government had signed a 23-point agreement with the elders of Hassanzai, Akazai and Madakhel tribes of Torghar for changing the status of Kala Dhaka, a former tribal area into a district.

The agreement included a tax-free zone, enforcement of Shariah on the pattern of Malakand as well as exemption of locals from police detention unless permitted by a jirga. But they regretted that the administration had violated nearly all the sections of the agreement and paid them less than market rates for land acquired for government buildings.

They said that poppy was their centuries-old cash crop. In the past, whenever the government asked for the crop to be destroyed, it paid compensation to cultivators.

“They have even cultivated banned crops in some areas, but I am quite optimistic they will destroy them voluntarily,” said Torghar District Police Officer Naqeebullah Khan. “The locals are mostly cooperative, except for a few who are trying to blackmail the administration.”

The anti-narcotics department is implementing development projects worth millions in Torghar to motivate locals to abandon the cultivation of poppy. They distribute fertilisers, seeds and assist them in agriculture and communication development projects every year, he said.

When approached for comments, Commissioner Hazara Khalid Khan Umerzai confirmed that farmers have grown poppy in some areas of Torghar and some police and Levy officials were involved in the cultivation. However, he said that investigation was under way and those found guilty would be taken to task under the law.

On the question of the tribal elders’ demand regarding voluntary destruction of poppy, he said that the government has announced a development package worth Rs4 billion, given the status of the district was now settled.

“What more do they want from us?” he said, making it clear that the writ of the government would be enforced at every cost and if they failed to destroy the banned crop voluntarily, the administration would use force against them.

Spread over an area of 497 square kilometres, Torghar district is situated in a remote part of Hazara and remained under the direct control of the provincial government till last year.

It came into the spotlight following reports that the area was used by US Navy Seals on May 2, when they tracked and killed bin Laden in Abbottabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2012.