Taliban says it has rounded up 31,000 beggars in Afghan cities

Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban administration, said the group collected 31,498 beggars from cities across Afghanistan in the past lunar year, a move announced amid rising poverty and hunger in the country.

Speaking on Wednesday, 11 Sunbula, at a meeting on what he described as the Taliban administration’s achievements, Mujahid said the process was carried out on the basis of a decree by Hibatullah Akhundzada and by a commission set up to prevent begging across Afghanistan. According to reports, the commission identifies, detains and interrogates people.

The figures come as international agencies have previously warned of a sharp rise in poverty since the Taliban returned to power. The World Food Programme had warned that, with winter approaching, more than 17 million Afghan citizens were facing severe food insecurity, and that a wave of hunger was spreading across the country at an alarming pace.

The United Nations has also said that around 23 million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance. Experts have said many citizens have been forced to beg because of a lack of jobs and the stagnation of economic activity.

In another part of his remarks, the Taliban administration spokesman claimed that the acting interior minister carried out more than 46,000 anti-narcotics operations in the past lunar year. He said that as a result of these operations, 13,326 people were arrested, 2,159 tonnes of narcotics were seized, 21,569 hectares of land were cleared of poppy cultivation, and 533 drug-production factories were destroyed.

He also said Taliban forces had seized and confiscated about 3,000 light and heavy weapons, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, and some communications and military equipment during their operations, and had arrested 804 people on smuggling charges.

Mujahid also claimed at another point in the meeting that regional countries’ views of the Taliban administration had become more positive and that its economic and political ties had expanded. He said the administration’s political offices in Kuwait, Berlin and Bonn had either opened or continued operating, and that the Taliban administration’s acting foreign minister had issued more than 203,693 visas for foreign citizens in the past year.

These claims come as, apart from Russia, no country has yet recognised the Taliban administration. Afghanistan has in recent years faced one of the most severe humanitarian crises, and poverty, unemployment and the need for urgent aid remain among the country’s main challenges.