Delhi (The Stellar News) Report- Saksham Kalia: As the Afganistan land is now under the control of Insurgent group Taliban with the overthrow of government of Taliban. With this the different questions raised about the Taliban that how an insurgent group become so powerful, from where does these groups are generating their incomes. As per the CIA, they exposed that the total income of Taliban before capturing the Afganistan land was $400 million. In this article I will discuss the main sources from where the Taliban has got funds for their survival.
Opium- Opium one of the biggest source of income for the Taliban as Afganistan is most opium producing country in the world. As this Opium is also use to produce a very useful medicine which we called Morphine. But from the same flower another most dangerous product is made which is Heroin, which owns about $65 billion worldwide industry. As per reports, there is about 15 million people worldwide are heroin addicts. About 85% of worldwide heroin is produced on Afganistan land.
China and Russia have largest number of heroin consumers. So, now you can easily find out that why these countries are so interested in Afganistan. With this export of Opium, Afganistan earns about USD $3 billion from which about $400 million goes to Taliban. This earning is before capturing the Afganistan.
Tax Collection- Afganistan is the country where the connectivity between the states is too bad. There are no proper roads to transport or move from one place to other. As these villages and other cities are really too isolated and far from the Kabul. For this many countries like US, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan, Iran and Saudi Arabia tries to made a ring road in Afganistan but they failed in their objective. This is because despite of 20 years of rule the road didn’t completed yet.
The main reason of this road hasn’t completed is the control of Taliban on some areas from where this ring road was to be formed. Taliban was collecting taxes from farmers and traders crossing from the road. Not just for crossing the road, Taliban was collecting tax for the formation of schools, hospital in a bid to not destroy them and give permission to build them. In an interview by an officer of electricity department, he told BBC that they have to pay $2million as a “tax”to Taliban for taking permission.
This means that each and every development of Afganistan has given financial support to Taliban.
Mines and minerals- As per sources, Afganistan’s mining industry earns $1billion every year and also claims that Afganistan’s un-trapped minerals and resources worth $3trillion. Because of the presence of Lithium in the Afganistan land, US Department of Defence calls Afganistan as the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”.
Lithium is the main raw material which is used in the electric cars for EV batteries. As the next revolution is going to be in electric vehicles, so the value of lithium is going to be boosted. China is already is trying to become global superpower with the help of electric vehicles.
Another biggest resource in the land of Afganistan is copper. As per reports, Afganistan has around 60 million metric tons of copper. In 2008, a contract to mine copper in Afganistan is given to china by Taliban. So, now you can see that why china is supporting Taliban.
Afganistan has abandon natural resources, lapis lazuli, an expensive gemstone is found in Afganistan, the country has 1.4 million tons of rare earth minerals which are used in the production of army equipments and electronic products. Many such resources and minerals are available in the country and many people are involved illegally. From these illegally involved people most of them were linked with Taliban by which Taliban manage to earn $10million every year.
Foreign donations- This is one of the biggest source of income for Taliban. Many countries are giving financial assistance to Taliban, many of these countries are named by the US and Afganistan government. These countries are Russia, Iran, Pakistan and many gulf countries. CIA had exposed in a classified document that Taliban has received about $106million in a past year from donars outside Afganistan. They also claimed that Pakistani intelligence has a big role in giving Taliban financial aid.
Just imagine that all these numbers are based on the time before the Taliban doesn’t came into power, when Taliban was doing it illegally and silently. Now, everything is control of Taliban this means they are now richest from some of other countries. This is really a big concern for India as the countries who supported Taliban in capturing afganistan will definitely expect something in back. As Taliban has already said that, they have right to talk on Kashmiri muslims. This cleared some of the puzzles that linked with Pakistan and china.
