An Afghan elderly man crosses into Pakistani side of the Pak-Afghan border at Chaman. PHOTO: INP
ISLAMABAD: In a bid to tighten curbs on drug and arms smuggling along the border with Afghanistan and Iran, the government is setting up three border liaison offices (BLOs) in Balochistan under the United Nations-brokered Triangular Initiative.
The BLOs are designed to help all three countries effectively coordinate in order to help reduce and prevent terrorism, human trafficking, as well as smuggling and other forms of organised crime. Both Iran and Afghanistan are also setting up BLOs.
Apart from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, the Central Asian republics are also part of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) strategy for regional cooperation since all of these states share a common problem of narcotics trafficking. Afghanistan is the wellspring of the global opium trade, accounting for 93% of global opium cultivation.
About 80% of the narcotics derived from Afghan opium poppies are smuggled out by transnational organised criminal groups through Pakistan and Iran, with the rest flowing through Central Asia. Coordination between these governments is seen as crucial in stemming the tide of narcotics, as well as the flow of money that funds criminal and terrorist groups around the world.
One BLO already exists on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Torkham, first set up in April 2011. It serves as a location for representatives from both sides of the border to meet regularly and exchange intelligence and other information on narcotics trafficking and other criminal activities.
Torkham is one of the busiest border posts along the Afghanistan border. The BLO there is staffed by officials from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Frontier Constabulary (FC), Pakistan Customs, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), the National Logistics Cell (NLC) and the administration of Khyber Agency.
The process of setting up BLOs on the Pakistan-Iran border came under discussion when senior Pakistani officials visited Tehran in October. A model BLO is being built in Chaman, on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and preparations are under way to build more such offices at the Taftan crossing on the Pakistan-Iran border as well as Gwadar, a location that would serve Panjgur and Turbat (renamed Kech).
Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2015.
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