The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
are busy growing opium poppy in the Gandamak area, where it was planted months earlier.
Farmers who grow and harvest the opium poppy in the district receive 500 Afs (About $6.40) per day.
"We don’t have money--there is neither work nor school, therefore we came here with our children for work," said Abdul Haq, a laborer in Shirzad district.
The Taliban
...Arabic for students...
had full control over most areas in Shirzad district, said district residents and farmers, adding the Taliban had cultivated the opium poppy while they controlled the district.
The Taliban pressure the landowners in the district to pay them a tax for the cultivation of poppy on their lands, officials said.
"We have to do this--the schools are also shut down due to the war," said Zubair, a young farmer in the district.
"We carry on our daily life with this work, " said Khan, another farmer in the Shirzad district.
The district was recaptured by Afghan cops from the Taliban recently, and opium poppy is being cultivated and smuggled in the district, said Zia ul Haq
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
Amarkhel, Nangarhar's governor, who added that soon the cultivation and trafficking will be halted in the district.
"The Taliban are behind all the smuggling, abductions, destruction, and poppy cultivation," he added.
Enamullah Saapai, head of Nangarhar's agriculture office, said there are plans to create dozens of hectares of crops in Hesarak, Khogyani and Shirzad districts this year and, they will contribute seeds for the farmers to grow alternative crops.
In addition to the cultivation of opium, Hashish is also being cultivated in Shirzad, Khogyani and Hesarak districts, said Nangarhar's local officials.
Related:
Shirzad district: 2021-01-31 Eight Security Force Members Killed in Nangarhar Blast: Official
Shirzad district: 2020-12-25 Taliban Bear Heavy Loss in Nangarhar Battle
Shirzad district: 2020-09-03 Taliban Red Unit suffers heavy casualties in a counter-terrorism operation by ANDSF
Shirzad district: 2021-01-31 Eight Security Force Members Killed in Nangarhar Blast: Official
Shirzad district: 2020-12-25 Taliban Bear Heavy Loss in Nangarhar Battle
Shirzad district: 2020-09-03 Taliban Red Unit suffers heavy casualties in a counter-terrorism operation by ANDSF