(Kabul) The supreme leader of the Taliban on Sunday ordered a ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, and warned that the authorities would destroy any plantations they discovered and punish those responsible.
Posted at 9:10 a.m.
Afghanistan is by far the world’s largest producer of poppy, from which opium and heroin are extracted. Production and exports have increased significantly in recent years.
“All Afghans are informed that henceforth poppy cultivation is strictly prohibited throughout the country,” reads an edict issued by Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
“In case of violation of the decree, the culture will be immediately destroyed and the culprit dealt with according to sharia”, adds the text, read in front of a group of journalists, foreign diplomats and Taliban officials by the spokesman of the government, Zabihullah Mujahid.
This is not the first time that the Taliban have said they are banning poppies. The cultivation of the flower was banned in 2000, a few months before the fundamentalist regime was overthrown by the international coalition led by the United States in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.
During their twenty years of guerrilla warfare against foreign forces, the Taliban heavily taxed poppy growers in areas under their control, which became an important source of income for them.
While in Afghanistan, the United States and its NATO allies attempted to curtail poppy cultivation and encourage farmers to grow wheat or saffron instead. Initiatives that failed, while the Taliban controlled the main poppy production areas.
Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi on Sunday denied that his movement had promoted poppy cultivation during the 20-year insurgency.
“How is it then that exports to the whole world continued when they (US and allied forces) had complete control of Afghanistan? ” did he declare.
Between 80% and 90% of heroin and opium in the world come from Afghanistan, according to the UN. The area devoted to this crop reached a record in 2017 with 250,000 hectares, about four times more than in the mid-1990s.