Afghanistan clashes break out over poppy crop clearing

Poppy farmers in Badakhshan, Afghanistan had been encouraged by the Taliban to plant different crops, but none was more lucrative than the plant which is the source of the drug opium, leading some to continue to discreetly cultivate small plots.

“We are poor people, all our hopes for survival are in growing poppy crops,” said a farmer named Jamaluddin (not his real name).

So when authorities started clearing their poppy crops and fields on Monday, the farmers fiercely resisted.

They threw rocks and demanded Taliban security units not destroy their crops, said the resident of Barlas Shalmar village in the Argo district of Badakhshan, residents told Agence France-Presse.

In response, Taliban authorities fired their guns to disperse villagers, Jamaluddin, who witnessed the incident, said.

A nurse at a medical facility in Argo, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told Agence France-Presse the clinic received “two dead and nine wounded people” from the Barlas area — a string of three neighboring villages.

A statement from the Taliban’s army unit in Badakhshan said there had been protests to prevent poppy clearing in Argo, but did not note any deaths or injuries as a result.

The “situation had returned to normal,” said spokesperson Noorullah Nazari, who was quoted in the statement.