KABUL - Minister of Mines and Petroleum Dawoud Shah Saba has expressed deep concerns over the practice of illegal mining in various regions across the country.
"Although there are no statistics about the exact numbers of mines which are being extracted illegally, people say that some of these mines are being plundered and extracted illegally," he said.
Meanwhile, a security official in the north has claimed that a commander of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) known as Malik has control over a lapis mine in the area and allegedly pays $440,000 USD to the Taliban monthly not to disrupt his activities.
Afghanistan is famous for its lapis lazuli, however, the majority of this wealth is reportedly being smuggled abroad.
Smuggling of the stones is said to be one of the main funding sources for the Taliban, militant groups, local warlords and other armed groups.
An Afghan security official meanwhile told the Associated Press that a local commander of ALP controls a lapis mine in the north and smuggles it to Kabul and then to Pakistan.
"If anyone tries to transfer the stones which are the assets of Afghanistan and smuggle them to an area and country, we will not allow them to do so and we will arrest the person involved in the smuggling," Kunduz police chief general Qasim Jangal Bagh said.
"We are facing problems in exports. Stones are being exported from here with a lot of difficulties. Because the export of precious stones is banned. The president has banned the export of stones, this has also affected our business. If stones from here are exported abroad, our businesses will be revived 100 percent," local jeweler Nasratullah said.
"Our demand is that the government must find solutions to the issues facing the people, either the government must make the mines state run or prevent the illegal extractions," another jeweler Mohammad Akbar said.
Afghan lapis is reportedly sold for between $2,000 and $4,000 USD per kilogram.
According to experts, Afghan lapis mines are estimated to be worth trillions of dollars. However they say that illegal extractions are posing serious problems to the nation's economic development. (Tolonews)