4000 hectares of poppy fields destroyed: Ministry of Interior

KABUL (TOLOnews): The counter-narcotics department of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said that so far it has destroyed 4,000 hectares of poppy fields in the country.
Hasibullah Ahmadi, head of the MoI, added that the process of destroying poppy fields is ongoing in Badakhshan, Kunduz, Takhar and Faryab provinces.
“About 4000 thousand hectares of land have been cleared of drug cultivation in the center and provinces of the country,” Ahmadi noted. The Kabul Security Command reported that after the Islamic Emirate returned to power, more than 1,000 people were arrested in connection with drug trafficking and its sales in the capital.
“1000 suspects have been arrested and turned over to the law in Kabul. These were the narcotics sellers and smugglers,” said Kabul security department spokesman Khalid Zadran.
Some farmers whose poppy fields have been destroyed asked the current government to provide them with alternative crops.
“We ask the current government to provide us with an alternative to opium cultivation and help us because our children are dying of hunger,” said Wali Mohammad, a resident of Uruzgan.
The counter-narcotics department of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), said that based on the surveys of recent years, there are between 3.5 million and 4 million drug users in the nation. The MoI has recently begun a new survey on the matter.