Poppy-free Ghanikhel turns into drug trade hub

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): The Ghanikhel district in eastern Nangarhar province has become a transit hub for delivery of drugs between Afghanistan and this has earned the district a bad name, officials said on Sunday.

Flanked by his Batikot counterpart Abdul Wahab, the Ghanikhel district chief, Muallem Mashouq told a press conference here that poppy cultivation in Ghanikhel had zeroed but the fact that the district shared Durand Line with Pakistan, the area had turned into a transit hub for cross Durand Line drug trafficking.

The administrative chiefs of the two district briefed reporters about their one year activities and performance at the provincial media office in Jalalabad.

Mashouq said his district was known for drugs because its geographical location suited drug trafficking across the Durand Line.

“Drugs from all over Afghanistan are delivered to Pakistan from Ghanikhel district because the area is situated on the border with Pakistan, a neighbor which has never good to us and has no good intentions towards us,” he said.

He said the District Municipality collected five million afghanis in revenue which was spent on construction, rehabilitation and some development activities in the district.

Batikot District Chief Abdul Wahab said security situation in his town had improved and hundreds of people daily visited the district for tourism.

He said education, clean water, canalization, culverts construction and some other projects worth 243 million afghanis had been completed in the district and some other uplift projects were under construction.

He said the District Municipality collected nearly one million afghanis revenue which was spent on construction of a bridge, footpath, clean water projects, two parks and provision of clean water to the district bazaar.

He said there was need for construction of 11 roads, tens of retaining walls, 18 schools, some health centres and some other development work, which would be implemented in the year to come.

Nh/ma

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