AFGHAN TALEBAN ORDERS DESTRUCTION OF HEROIN LABS

ISLAMABAD, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taleban militia said on
Friday it has ordered the destruction of all heroin factories in areas
under its control.

"The supreme leader of Taleban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has ordered the
destruction of all heroin factories in Afghanistan," Taleban Anti-
Narcotics Commission chairman, Mullah Abdul Hamid, was quoted by a
Pakistan-based Afghan news service as saying.

The Taleban control most of Afghanistan.

He said his commission had begun implementing Omar's order in the eastern
province of Nangarhar and would do the same later in two southern provinces
of Kandahar and Helmand.

Afghanistan is a leading producer of opium, from which heroin is derived,
and is also a smuggling route to Pakistan, Iran and Central Asian states.

The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Hamid as saying that in Nangarhar,
his commission had given a Saturday deadline to all those operating such
factories to close down or face punishment under the Islamic Sharia code.

"Those who do not implement these orders will be punished under (Islamic)
Sharia laws of the Islamic Emirate (of Afghanistan)", he said.

Hamid said there were 41 heroin factories in Shinwar and Khogyani districts
of Nangarhar making huge amounts of the drug.

The commission also planned the closure of heroin factories in Kandahar and
Helmand provinces after the Nangarhar operation, he said.

He said Pakistani authorities would help the Taleban in putting an end to
heroin smuggling.

Hamid said the Taleban saw the move to stop heroin production as a
religious responsibility rather than as a result of Western or United
Nations pressure.

"After months of research, eminent ulema (Islamic religious scholars) of
Afghanistan gave a verdict that heroin production was disallowed by
religion and on this basis the Afghan leader ordered the destruction of
factories," Hamid said.

But he said opium cultivation could not be stopped immediately and sought
the support of the United Nations and world community in providing
alternative sources of earnings to poppy-growing Afghan farmers.