Itanagar, Feb 22: A massive drive against illegal poppy cultivation headed by the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN) and assisted by various security forces and state government has for the first time exposed the links between narcotics and terrorism in Arunachal Pradesh.
The operation was carried out in various districts of Arunachal Pradesh like Lohit, Namsai, and Changlang for the last two months, during which sleuths from the CBN destroyed illegal poppy cultivation in over 6000 hectres of land.
According to the officials from CBN, the poppy cultivation destroyed will be worth approximately around 500 crores, which is a huge figure. What is more shocking is the fact that the parties engaged in the destruction work had received threat calls from militant outfits like NSCN (K-YA) and Ulfa (Independent) to return back or face bullets.
This led to a steep decline in the number of workers, however, fortunately due to the intervention of the Assam Rifles, which ensured that there is no untoward incident by deploying its manpower on ground as the teams went ahead with the destruction job.
However, due to inclement weather and various other factors, the CBN could destroy only around 50 to 60 percent of its targeted area.
Therefore, it will be for the government concerned and agencies to frame a robust policy and implement the same on ground to wipe out the menace from the roots.
