Taliban Claims End to Drug Production and Trafficking in Regional Forum
At a regional Central Asia information and coordination meeting focused on strengthening cooperation against drug trafficking, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Munir, Deputy Minister for Counter-Narcotics at the Taliban-run Ministry of Interior, took part and delivered a speech.
According to a statement from the Taliban-controlled Interior Ministry, Munir claimed that counter-narcotics efforts have been one of the major achievements of their administration, asserting that the levels of drug cultivation, trafficking, and sale in Afghanistan have dropped to nearly zero.
He also called on the countries participating in the meeting to support the development of alternative livelihoods for Afghan farmers. According to him, such cooperation is necessary to completely eliminate drug production and trafficking in Afghanistan.
These remarks come despite the fact that Afghanistan has been one of the world’s largest producers of opium over the past two decades. Previous Afghan governments also sought sustainable solutions to reduce farmers’ dependence on poppy cultivation. Despite the Taliban’s claims, serious doubts remain regarding the sustainability and accuracy of these assertions, given the lack of transparency, absence of international monitoring, and a widespread economic crisis.
