IRNA -- Tribesmen in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchestan, on the border with Afghanistan, have fired on paramilitary troops trying to destroy their poppy fields. "One Frontier Corps man was killed in the clash that took place on 26 April," Brig Sikander Ali of Pakistan's anti-narcotics division said in the capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday. The incident occurred in the Pinakai valley in Gulistan District, according to UN information network. Local newspapers reported that weapons such as Kalashnikov assault rifles, mortars and rocket launchers were used.
| All tricked out for elk season, aren't they? |
"We know that these tribesmen have these types of weapons due to their location and proximity to the border," Sikander said.
| "That, and their liking for slaughtering each other. I think it's part of their mating rituals..." |
The poppy eradication process, which started on 15 April, was concentrated in Qila Abdullah, where about 90 percent of the crop was growing, 70 km from the provincial capital, Quetta. "Obviously there will be resistance, but we are taking this matter seriously and we have to eradicate the fields," Ali stressed. Haji Wali Muhammad, a tribal elder, said from Gulistan that farmers in the region turned to poppy cultivation because of a lack of infrastructure and a dearth of national or international assistance. "There are no schools, the hospital is not working and drought has destroyed our orchards," he said.
| "Nobody gives a rat's heinie about us, until we start growing the heavy shit..." |
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