But being out of power has apparently changed the perspective of this feisty group of men known for their uncompromising nature and religious fanaticism. Determined to keep southern Afghanistan in chaos and make the country ungovernable, Taleban rebels have teamed up with drug barons against the central government and the recently launched opium-eradication efforts.

The campaign kicked off last week in Helmand province, the producer of most of Afghanistan's opium, which accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the world supply. The southern province also happens to be one of the hardest hit by the Taleban-led insurgency.

Beside the fact that such the reversal of attitude illustrates the hypocritical nature of the Taleban, it also shows that narcotics and terrorists are two sides of the same coin. One feeds off the other. Reportedly, money from illicit gains is being channelled to fund the Taleban's terror campaign.

"Taleban and smugglers work together because they have a common interest to destabilise the government - Taleban to feed the people's anger against authorities, smugglers to carry on their business," Haji Mohammed Qasem, head of Helmand's Nad Ali district, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying. "In both cases, drug money feeds the struggle," he said.

Farmers and villagers, meanwhile, are caught in the middle - between the country's counter-narcotics agency and the Taleban rebels who have threatened them with reprisals if they do not sow opium.

Tough times for the people of Afghanistan indeed. Besides dealing with the rise of suicide bombings by terrorists, the Kabul government is trying hard to show the world that it can be a responsible government by curbing heroin shipments.

So why should Thailand be concerned with what is happening in this faraway, war-torn Central Asian country? As a responsible member of the world community, Thailand needs to care. Not long after the ouster of the Taleban regime, the Kingdom dispatched a unit of Army engineers to help with the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

The two countries also share a number of similarities. Opium and counter-insurgencies are not exactly unknown in Thailand's recent history. But with the help of friends in the international community, Thailand succeeded in virtually eradicating opium cultivation in the northern hills and mountains. Unfortunately, the country's success in opium eradication was not replicated in neighbouring Burma, which is now the main source of the Kingdom's illicit drugs, including methamphetamines, ecstasy and heroin.

For the international community, the needed will to act must be mobilised or else everyone risks the onset of a much bigger headache. Simply put, the world cannot ignore Afghanistan as it did in the post-Soviet era. The longer we wait to address transnational problems like drugs and terrorism, the harder it will be to contain them in the future.

There is a tendency to dismiss narcotics as secondary because Afghans have more immediate problems to contend with, such as the growing number of attacks perpetrated by terrorists sneaking over the porous Afghan-Pakistani borders.

But intensive and systematic cooperation between the two countries along the border and in diplomatic circles will not only strengthen the fight against terror, but also help eradicate other illicit activities such as drug smuggling. This emerging narco-terrorist outfit led by Taleban rebels must be nipped in the bud before it can threaten to derail progress made to transform Afghanistan into a normal country, where democracy can thrive hand-in-hand with sustainable economic and social development.