Taliban Loot Panjshir Mines, Bring No Benefit To People, Reveals Poll
A research institution called the Panjshir Studies Centre has published the findings of its survey of the residents of Panjshir province.
A research institution called the Panjshir Studies Centre has published the findings of its survey of the residents of Panjshir province.
The organisation said that 90% of the survey respondents believe that the Taliban are "looting" the mines of Panjshir and that the people of the province do not benefit from their revenues.
According to the report, residents of Panjshir have said that the mines of this province are extracted by traders and their revenues are handed over to the Taliban government.
The report states that the Taliban has also issued work permits to 1,700 miners and received 10,000 afghanis from each licence. It is said that 550 miners are currently working in Panjshir.
According to the report, the Taliban has sold 43,000 carats of Panjshir emeralds in 32 auctions, and the proceeds have reached the Taliban administration in the centre worth 78 million afghanis.
The Panjshir Studies Centre said that miners in Panjshir reported that the Taliban had been extorting 2,000 afghanis from them every month.
The report also said that the Taliban also sells explosives needed for mining "exclusively" and at high rates.
The Panjshir Studies Centre said that in this survey, it spoke to 250 men and women across Panjshir and asked them five major questions. The survey was said to have been conducted over a period of two months.
‘Non-implementation of development projects in Panjshir’
According to the survey, 98% of the participants said that the Taliban government has not implemented any development projects in Panjshir.
According to the report, two percent of respondents hope for the construction of a road from Panjshir to Badakhshan.
At the same time, 60 percent of respondents said that some small projects, such as cleaning agricultural and drinking water canals, have been implemented by charities.
The Panjshir Studies Centre said that 97 participants said in response to a question that they had not seen any "positive performance" from the Taliban government.
‘Taliban meetings under guise of people's support for group's government’
The report of the Panjshir Studies Centre states that the residents of Panjshir claimed that the Taliban government regularly holds programmes and gatherings in Panjshir under the title of "supporting the emirate system".
The report states that no criticism of the Taliban government is raised in these meetings, and if anyone does so, they will be threatened.
The Panjshir Studies Centre said that in the past year alone, Mohammad Agha Hakim, the Taliban's governor in Panjshir, has held 23 meetings under the title of "Supporting the Emirate System" in different districts of the province.
According to the report, these meetings are held at "exorbitant costs", and the Taliban ask the speakers to praise the group's government.
The Panjshir Studies Centre also said that the Taliban "abused students" in schools and asked them to sing dozens of poems and songs in praise of the Taliban's governor in Panjshir and the group's government.
The Taliban government has not yet responded to the findings of the survey.
