Afghanistan’s hardline Taliban leaders have threatened to militarily suppress unprecedented violent public protests in a northeastern border region against a nationwide ban on poppy cultivation.

The unrest erupted last Friday when the Taliban’s anti-narcotics forces began destroying poppy fields in Badakhshan province, prompting angry farmers to resist it with the support of local residents.

Multiple sources confirmed Sunday that Taliban security forces used firearms to disperse the demonstrators, killing two of them during the two days of protests.

Videos circulating on social media showed residents chanting slogans against reclusive Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has banned poppy cultivation across Afghanistan through a religious decree. VOA could not ascertain the authenticity of the footage independently.

While Taliban authorities claimed Sunday the situation had returned to normal, residents said tensions were running high, and they were waiting for a high-powered government team to address their complaints.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an overnight official announcement that their army chief, Qari Fasihuddin, a Badakhshan native, would lead the team to thoroughly investigate the violence and circumstances leading to it.

Mujahid said that an anti-poppy campaign in Badakhshan was under way in line with Akhundzada’s decree to prevent the cultivation of the illegal crop and its smuggling.

“This decree extends to all regions without exception. Regrettably, there have been incidents where offenders attempted to attack the security forces involved in the fight against poppy cultivation, resulting in tragic events,” he said.

Fasihuddin reportedly warned on Sunday that he would be compelled to deploy additional military forces to “quell the rebellion” if the demonstrations persist. He reiterated the Taliban’s resolve to eradicate poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and vowed to achieve this goal, come what may.

Badakhshan and surrounding Afghan provinces are ethnically non-Pashtun regions. The province borders Tajikistan and Pakistan.

The Taliban, who represent the country’s majority Pashtun population, were unable to take control of these provinces during their first stint in power in the 1990s.

Following their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have successfully established control over all 34 Afghan provinces.

However, some experts argue that the public uprising in Badakhshan highlights the potential obstacles that the Taliban may face in maintaining their authority.

The international community has not yet formally recognized the Taliban government, citing its restrictions on Afghan women’s access to education and work, among other human rights concerns.

Afghanistan has faced dire economic problems since the Taliban takeover nearly three years ago. The Afghan banking sector largely remains isolated, and terrorism-related sanctions on Taliban leaders continue to deter donors from resuming financial assistance for development programs.

The restrictions have fueled unemployment and economic problems for the poverty-stricken country’s estimated 40 million population.

The World Bank noted in its latest report released on Thursday that the Taliban’s ban on opium cultivation precipitated a staggering $1.3 billion loss in farmers’ incomes.

Citing U.N. estimates, the report said that the opiate economy’s value has contracted by 90 percent, while the area under cultivation declined by 95 percent, costing Afghans 450,000 jobs at the farm level alone.

The World Bank report noted that Afghanistan’s economic outlook remains uncertain, with the threat of stagnation looming large until at least 2025. “For a sustainable future, Afghanistan needs to address harmful gender policies, invest in health and education, and focus on the comparative advantages it has in the agricultural and extractive sectors,” it said.

Afghanistan used to be the world’s largest opium-poppy producer until the Taliban imposed the ban on cultivation in early 2022.

The ban strictly prohibits the cultivation, production, usage, transportation, trade, export, and import of all illicit drugs in Afghanistan. Afghan poppy farming accounted for 85% of global opium production until recently, according to United Nations estimates.

Media on the ground feel as though “no stories can be filed” without Taliban approval, said a Kabul-based journalist who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.

The journalist has been covering politics and security issues in Afghanistan for more than a decade. He said he used to be able to go straight to the scene of an incident, get eyewitness accounts and ask officials for their story.

“But no one can imagine doing that [now],” he told VOA. “We must have the Taliban’s account of a story first or else we cannot publish it.”

 

Government control over content is just one of the challenges the country’s journalists face, media advocates say. Female reporters face dress code regulations. And in April alone, Taliban officials in Khost province detained three journalists and blocked access to the privately owned channels Noor TV and Barya TV, according to media reports.

Officials said the broadcasters were not respecting “national and Islamic values.”

Afghan journalists try their best to cover stories, but it is challenging, said Gul Mohammad Graan, president of the Afghan chapter of the South Asian Association of Reporters Club and Journalists Forum.

“Censorship is increasing day by day. The Taliban aim to control what the media say,” Graan said. “By control, I mean, whatever they want is covered, and whatever they do not want is not covered.”

That environment is reflected in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, which saw Afghanistan drop 26 points over the past year. The country ranks 178 out of 180, with 1 assigned to the country with the best media environment, in the report published Friday by Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.

Mirwais Zazai

Under the Taliban, Afghanistan is the “most repressive country” in South Asia, said Célia Mercier, who covers the region for RSF. “Directive[s] of all kinds that are restricting press freedom,” she added.

Neither the Taliban spokesperson nor its Foreign Ministry responded to VOA’s request for comment. But the Taliban have previously said that media outlets have unrestricted freedom and support from the government if they follow the country’s laws and Islamic values.

The Afghanistan Journalists Center has recorded more than 450 media violation cases since the Taliban took power.

“These include three journalists killed, 219 detentions and 235 cases of threats and physical violence,” said Ahmad Quraishi, the center’s executive director.

Quraishi told VOA that when the Taliban took over, they announced that the country’s existing media law would remain in effect. But then “they issued about 17 edicts that are in opposition to media law,” he said.

Beh Lin Yi, head of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Asia program, said the Taliban try to control media so that Afghans and the world “won’t know what was going on in the country.”

Anonymous Afghan Journalist in the first four months of the Taliban’s takeover, according to RSF.

Among all female media workers including journalists, the drop-off was 73% during those months, according to RSF.

Those women who continue to work as journalists in Afghanistan face strict limitations. The Taliban require all women to wear the hijab. But female journalists were also told they must be covered from head to toe. And they also have to grapple with the restrictive mandates imposed on all Afghan women, such as not being allowed to travel more than short distances unaccompanied by a male relative.

“The limitations made it impossible for women journalists to continue their work,” said Farogh Tarin, who used to work for the Pajhwok News Agency in Kabul.

Farogh Tarin\

“I was not allowed to go to events or attend conferences, interviews and protests. Therefore, I was forced to leave Afghanistan,” she told VOA.

Tarin left Afghanistan in March 2022 and is now living in France.

Despite the restrictions, journalists in the country and those in exile are still working hard to cover events.

One reporter in Khost province, who asked for anonymity, said there are limitations on coverage but “in general, we continue to report.”

Samiullah Jalalzai, Najiba Salam and Mohammad Ahmadi from VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this report. This article originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.