03-05-2008, 09:00 PM
Maoists following in the footsteps of taliban and the left wing warlords.
<b>Maoists start cultivating opium to fund their terror campaign</b>
Amitabh Srivastava
March 2, 2008
In select pockets of Bihar, the Maoists terrorists these days seem more concerned about the soil's PH levels, right fertilisers and the plant germination methods.
But that's no harbinger of positive change. Instead, things are even more ominous. Because the <b>Naxalites have begun growing opium poppies to fund their operations in the regionâsomething they had been doing since long in neighbouring north Jharkhand districts.
This came to be known when on February 21, a team of narcotics and police officials recovered 81,000 poppy plants from an agricultural field in Ajnama of Naxal-infested Mohanpur area of Bihar's Gaya district.</b>
"The entire area under Mohanpur police station is extremism-infested and is heavily forested," reads the FIR lodged to this effect by police sub-inspector Ram Sidheswar Azad. A copy of this FIR is with India Today.
According to the FIR lodged to this effect, the police team raided these fields when opium was being harvested from the poppy crops. Opium and its cultivation is an offence liable for prosecution under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
But the seizure was just the beginning. Three days later on February 24, the police again raided another village, Reswar to seize 10 bags stuffed with harvested opium. The police also arrested an accused Meghu Prasad, who is believed to have revealed the names of the Naxalites chieftains who are patronising the produce.
The third such catch within a week in Gaya was made on February 26 when the cops seized opium crops that was tucked away in the remote interiors of Tetaria village located at Bihar-Jharkhand borders. The seized opium here has an estimated worth of Rs four crore in the international market.
It is not as if the authorities have not been vigilant all these years. But, last week's seizure of 10 acres of poppy crops from a remote village at Kishanganj district in Bihar also suggests that the opium traders have spread to new areas in the State while the Narcotics Department and the police have failed to break the stranglehold of the heroin cartel in Bihar.
Incidentally, in addition to the seizure last week, the Kishanganj authorities also discovered another 10 acre of agricultural stretch from where opium had already been harvested.
The opium extraction process involves making a shallow cut to release little blobs of opium from the seed capsule. The process takes three to six hours for the opium to get released.
Because of the district's strategic geo-political significance and close proximity to the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh borders, the ISI and Nepalese Maoists have often been found having more than academic interest in Kishanganj district in Bihar.
According to Gaya Superintendent of Police Amit Jain, the areas from where the Gaya police have seized the opium crops are strongholds of the Maoists. "These zones are not normally visited by the police," he admitted. This may be because of the Maoists threat and also due to the inaccessibility of these villages.
Jain, who is nevertheless credited for initiating the first ever drive aimed at breaking the nexus between unscrupulous farmers and their Maoists patrons in Bihar, says he has "definite information" that the rebels have engaged more farmers to plant poppy crops. "We have many more such raids in the offing," he said.
Police have "definite information" suggesting that the Maoists are not only growing poppy, but also extorting "taxes" from farmers and opium traders.
The bordering areas of Bihar and Jharkhand have conducive climate for Papaver somniferum, the botanical name for Opium plants that prefer a cool climate over hot weather.
In hot areas, the plants grow best in loose, well drained soil and don't do well in dense soil like clay. Incidentally, no agriculture family in the two States have government license to grow poppy.
Bihar Excise (that also has the Narcotics bureau) Department Secretary Amir Subhani admits that the recovery of opium cultivation across various pockets of the state has given them reason to "launch integrated operations with the police to home in on the traders."
"We have taken serious note of the recoveries. Besides coordinating drives with police, we are also in the process of teaming up with the Jharkhand authorities to ensure crackdown on the poppy traders, " Subhani told India Today. A Special Task force is to be formed to destroy the opium fields, besides arresting those involved in the illegal trade.
Incidentally, according to Jain the cops have also begun similar coordination exercise with their counterparts in Jharkhand. "The focus is on border-free crackdown on Maoists and those who grow illegal poppy," he said.
Meanwhile, Bihar's Criminal Investigation Department too has initiated a focused probe to get to the bottom of illegal Opium trade in the State.
The proactive efforts may also see Bihar and Jharkhand authorities following Arunachal Pradesh's example of employing satellite services to detect illegal poppy cultivation.
Earlier the opium cultivation was found restricted to Jharkhand's Hazaribag and Chatra districts only that border Bihar's Gaya district.
The Jharkhand police first stumbled upon poppy cultivation by the Maoists in 2005 when it found pockets of the interiors being used for illegally growing opium. Today, even by conservative estimates, more than a few hundred acres of agriculture land in several villages across the two states is reportedly being used for poppy cultivation.
The Maoists hand behind cultivate of poppy crops appears unmistakably clear, and it suits them as much. According to a police officer, the Naxalite by extending their patronage to poppy crops not only help the villagers earn a fast buck and thus woo more foot-soldiers into their fold but also earn a decent levy for their coffers, besides of course using the cash to strengthen their arsenal.
According to reports, in the narcotic world even low quality stuff yield fetches Rs 18,000-22,000 a kilo and while better produce fetches much more. "This easy money indeed is a huge motivation that drives the farmers for poppy cultivation," said a senior police officer.
Indeed, with Maoists active in 30 out of its 38 districts, Bihar has continued to remain one of the worst affected States in terms of Left Wing extremism. Similarly, the rebels have a presence in 20 of the 24 districts in Jharkhand.
Earlier, Hazaribag police superintendent Praveen Singh has personally conducted several raids to destroy poppy cultivation grown by the Maoists conduits. The police in Hazaribag have arrested more than a dozen people so far.
Similarly, in the adjoining Chatra district of Jharkhand, the opium trade has become the most lucrative option for unscrupulous farmers,backed by the Maoists chieftains who motivate and protect them from the police and greedy traders . It fetches them very good returns.
Obviously, with such large tracts under illegal poppy cultivation, it does not take long for the traffickers and smugglers to find new havens. Time for the officials to pull up their socks.
<b>Maoists start cultivating opium to fund their terror campaign</b>
Amitabh Srivastava
March 2, 2008
In select pockets of Bihar, the Maoists terrorists these days seem more concerned about the soil's PH levels, right fertilisers and the plant germination methods.
But that's no harbinger of positive change. Instead, things are even more ominous. Because the <b>Naxalites have begun growing opium poppies to fund their operations in the regionâsomething they had been doing since long in neighbouring north Jharkhand districts.
This came to be known when on February 21, a team of narcotics and police officials recovered 81,000 poppy plants from an agricultural field in Ajnama of Naxal-infested Mohanpur area of Bihar's Gaya district.</b>
"The entire area under Mohanpur police station is extremism-infested and is heavily forested," reads the FIR lodged to this effect by police sub-inspector Ram Sidheswar Azad. A copy of this FIR is with India Today.
According to the FIR lodged to this effect, the police team raided these fields when opium was being harvested from the poppy crops. Opium and its cultivation is an offence liable for prosecution under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
But the seizure was just the beginning. Three days later on February 24, the police again raided another village, Reswar to seize 10 bags stuffed with harvested opium. The police also arrested an accused Meghu Prasad, who is believed to have revealed the names of the Naxalites chieftains who are patronising the produce.
The third such catch within a week in Gaya was made on February 26 when the cops seized opium crops that was tucked away in the remote interiors of Tetaria village located at Bihar-Jharkhand borders. The seized opium here has an estimated worth of Rs four crore in the international market.
It is not as if the authorities have not been vigilant all these years. But, last week's seizure of 10 acres of poppy crops from a remote village at Kishanganj district in Bihar also suggests that the opium traders have spread to new areas in the State while the Narcotics Department and the police have failed to break the stranglehold of the heroin cartel in Bihar.
Incidentally, in addition to the seizure last week, the Kishanganj authorities also discovered another 10 acre of agricultural stretch from where opium had already been harvested.
The opium extraction process involves making a shallow cut to release little blobs of opium from the seed capsule. The process takes three to six hours for the opium to get released.
Because of the district's strategic geo-political significance and close proximity to the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh borders, the ISI and Nepalese Maoists have often been found having more than academic interest in Kishanganj district in Bihar.
According to Gaya Superintendent of Police Amit Jain, the areas from where the Gaya police have seized the opium crops are strongholds of the Maoists. "These zones are not normally visited by the police," he admitted. This may be because of the Maoists threat and also due to the inaccessibility of these villages.
Jain, who is nevertheless credited for initiating the first ever drive aimed at breaking the nexus between unscrupulous farmers and their Maoists patrons in Bihar, says he has "definite information" that the rebels have engaged more farmers to plant poppy crops. "We have many more such raids in the offing," he said.
Police have "definite information" suggesting that the Maoists are not only growing poppy, but also extorting "taxes" from farmers and opium traders.
The bordering areas of Bihar and Jharkhand have conducive climate for Papaver somniferum, the botanical name for Opium plants that prefer a cool climate over hot weather.
In hot areas, the plants grow best in loose, well drained soil and don't do well in dense soil like clay. Incidentally, no agriculture family in the two States have government license to grow poppy.
Bihar Excise (that also has the Narcotics bureau) Department Secretary Amir Subhani admits that the recovery of opium cultivation across various pockets of the state has given them reason to "launch integrated operations with the police to home in on the traders."
"We have taken serious note of the recoveries. Besides coordinating drives with police, we are also in the process of teaming up with the Jharkhand authorities to ensure crackdown on the poppy traders, " Subhani told India Today. A Special Task force is to be formed to destroy the opium fields, besides arresting those involved in the illegal trade.
Incidentally, according to Jain the cops have also begun similar coordination exercise with their counterparts in Jharkhand. "The focus is on border-free crackdown on Maoists and those who grow illegal poppy," he said.
Meanwhile, Bihar's Criminal Investigation Department too has initiated a focused probe to get to the bottom of illegal Opium trade in the State.
The proactive efforts may also see Bihar and Jharkhand authorities following Arunachal Pradesh's example of employing satellite services to detect illegal poppy cultivation.
Earlier the opium cultivation was found restricted to Jharkhand's Hazaribag and Chatra districts only that border Bihar's Gaya district.
The Jharkhand police first stumbled upon poppy cultivation by the Maoists in 2005 when it found pockets of the interiors being used for illegally growing opium. Today, even by conservative estimates, more than a few hundred acres of agriculture land in several villages across the two states is reportedly being used for poppy cultivation.
The Maoists hand behind cultivate of poppy crops appears unmistakably clear, and it suits them as much. According to a police officer, the Naxalite by extending their patronage to poppy crops not only help the villagers earn a fast buck and thus woo more foot-soldiers into their fold but also earn a decent levy for their coffers, besides of course using the cash to strengthen their arsenal.
According to reports, in the narcotic world even low quality stuff yield fetches Rs 18,000-22,000 a kilo and while better produce fetches much more. "This easy money indeed is a huge motivation that drives the farmers for poppy cultivation," said a senior police officer.
Indeed, with Maoists active in 30 out of its 38 districts, Bihar has continued to remain one of the worst affected States in terms of Left Wing extremism. Similarly, the rebels have a presence in 20 of the 24 districts in Jharkhand.
Earlier, Hazaribag police superintendent Praveen Singh has personally conducted several raids to destroy poppy cultivation grown by the Maoists conduits. The police in Hazaribag have arrested more than a dozen people so far.
Similarly, in the adjoining Chatra district of Jharkhand, the opium trade has become the most lucrative option for unscrupulous farmers,backed by the Maoists chieftains who motivate and protect them from the police and greedy traders . It fetches them very good returns.
Obviously, with such large tracts under illegal poppy cultivation, it does not take long for the traffickers and smugglers to find new havens. Time for the officials to pull up their socks.