Police to protect Kachin poppy destroyers
More than 1000 activists of a Christian-based anti-narcotics group are to have police protection after getting the go-ahead from the Kachin State government to destroy over 1600 hectares (4000 acres) of opium poppy fields.
Permission was received on 21 January to mount the mass operation in Waingmaw township this weekend. Poppy clearing by the Pat Ja San group had been put on hold after a 19-year-old activist eradicating the flowers that produce opium for heroin was shot dead by the suspected owner of a poppy field last week in Hukawng valley in Tanai township.
