Washington: The US might have eliminated
some top Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, but is struggling to
cut-off their increasingly diversified terror funding that
continues to keep the insurgency's coffers brimming with cash.
A report in The New York Times today said the Taliban in
Afghanistan have expanded their revenue generation mechanism
from traditional illicit drug trade to kidnappings, extortion
and foreign donations, which America is struggling to cut off.
Only recently the Special US Representative for Pakistan
and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke has begun focusing on the
issue of Taliban's fund generation mechanism, and has created
a separate inter-agency unit led by officials from the
Department of Treasury to block their sources of funding.
"In Afghanistan the Taliban have imposed an elaborate
system to tax cultivation, processing and shipment of opium,
and other crops like wheat. In the Middle East Taliban leaders
have sent fund-raisers to Arab countries to keep the
insurgency's coffers brimming with cash," it said.
By diversifying their revenue stream beyond opium,
officials say, the Taliban are frustrating American and NATO
efforts to weaken the insurgency by cutting off its economic
lifelines.
Holbrooke himself travelled to the Gulf, a major source
these outfits' funding, mainly routed through the illegal
hawala network in South Asia. But, the Taliban source of
funding keeps on flourishing, the paper said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, October 19, 2009, 10:40