ISLAMABAD: A major chunk of the whopping US $ 800 million of annual illegal trade in gems, timber and marbles may be sustaining the activities of Taliban in Pakistan’s restive north-west, a media report said on Monday.

“It is not possible to put a definitive figure on how much the Taliban are making from their excursion into economic activity, but the Pakistani government estimates that it is losing 65 billion rupees annually from the illegal timber trade and indiscriminate deforestation alone,” The News said in its editorial ‘Funding Terror’ today.

Marble was their first target, starting in April 2008 when they took over the Ziarat marble quarry in Mohmand.

Around a million tons of marble a year are mined in FATA every year - and prior to the takeover the Pakistani government had hoped to increase marble and granite exports to US $ 500 million by 2013; a hope now not to be realised with the profit now going into other pockets.

The emerald mines of Swat were next. By late March of this year reports began to be confirmed that militants had taken control of Pakistani government controlled emerald mines located in the mountains of Mingora. Swat is also0 rich in timber.

The occupation of the Mingora mine apparently took place sometime in February 2009, following the peace deal between the provincial administration and Sufi Muhammad. Taliban forces then seized the nearby Shamozai and Gujjar Killi mines and started mining and trading gems.

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