PESHAWAR, Pakistan — For decades, Taj Muhammad Afridi had been making stoners mellow around the world.
By now, at his family homestead in the Tirah Valley in Pakistan’s tribal belt, hundreds of marijuana plants should be full-grown, some as tall as a one-story house. The traditional harvest would be in October, and that’s when Afridi would start making some of the world’s most sought-after hashish.
But Afridi’s crops — and those of others nearby that produce eye-popping amounts of marijuana — have been abandoned, and are in danger of becoming another casualty of Pakistan’s decade-long war against terrorism and Islamist militancy.
After Afridi planted his marijuana seeds in February, the military began a series of military operations in the Tirah Valley against Taliban fighters who had found refuge there.
