Destroyed 4,000 hectares of poppy fields in Afghanistan, claims Taliban

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN, May 8: The counter-narcotics department of the Taliban-led Ministry of Interior (MoI) has said that so far, it has destroyed 4,000 hectares of poppy fields in the country, Afghanistan-based Tolo News reported.

Head of the Taliban-led MoI, Hasibullah Ahmadi, said the process of destroying poppy fields is ongoing in Badakhshan, Kunduz, Takhar, and Faryab provinces. "About 4000 thousand hectares of land have been cleared of drug cultivation in the center and provinces of the country," Ahmadi noted, according to Tolo News.

As per the Kabul Security Command, after the Taliban returned to power, more than 1,000 people were arrested in connection with drug trafficking and its sales in the capital.

"1000 suspects have been arrested and turned over to the law in Kabul. These were the narcotics sellers and smugglers," said Kabul security department spokesman Khalid Zadran, according to Tolo News.

Some farmers whose poppy fields have been destroyed asked the current government to provide them with alternative crops. "We ask the current government to provide us with an alternative to opium cultivation and help us because our children are dying of hunger," said Wali Mohammad, a resident of Uruzgan.

The Taliban-led Ministry of Interior (MoI)'s counter-narcotics department said that based on the surveys of recent years, there are between 3.5 million and four million drug users in the nation. The MoI has recently begun a new survey on the matter. 

(RSS/ANI)