The Islamic Emirate’s foreign ministry officials in Nimruz province said that 20 Afghan prisoners, including students, scholars and ordinary citizens were released from Iran’s Zahedan province.

The Directorate of Information and Culture in western Nimruz province in an announcement said that after being released, the detainees were handed over to the IEA officials in Zaranj the provincial capital of Nimruz province. 

According to local officials, these individuals were incarcerated due to failing to provide legal stay documents and visas and were released following the efforts of the Afghan consulate in Zahedan.

Mawlavi Sediqullah Nasrat, the head of the refugee and repatriation center in Nimruz province stated that returnees have been referred to International Organization for Migration (IOM) to receive the necessary help.

In addition, it is reported that hundreds of Afghan inmates have been released from prisons in Pakistan and Iran and returned to Afghanistan over the past month.

On Thursday (March 30) a delegation from the Ministry of Refugee and Repatriation of Afghanistan met with the representatives of Afghan refugees in Sistan and Baluchistan and Qom provinces and vowed to address refugees’ problems and find solutions respectively.

Over the past nine months, more than 2045 Afghan refugees returned to the country through the Islam Qala crossing point, according to Afghan border officials.

The United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention, (UNODC) say it will support the rehabilitation program of drug addicts in Afghanistan, by covering 24 addicts’ treatment centers, state-run Bakhtar agency reported.

The UNODC will provide food, heating equipment, health materials, and medicine for these centers.

Currently, 3.5 million, which is about 10% of the total population of Afghanistan, are drug addicts, according to UNODC.

The UNODC will support these centers for at least six months.

The UNODC Office in Afghanistan, sharing reports says that the amount of land under poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2001 was about 8 thousand hectares, but after the US attack on Afghanistan, the upward trend of drug production in this country not only did not stop, but it gained speed and in 2017, the land under poppy cultivation increased to 224 thousand hectares.

With the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan, poppy cultivation has been banned in this country, and those who disobey this order will be punished.

The Islamic Emirate put an end to the gathering of thousands of addicts from around Kabul mainly Pul-Sokhta, which for many years was the solitary life of addicts and the hot market for buying and dealing drugs in the capital, thousands of addicts were gathered from Kabul and other cities and sent to clinics.

In recent days, the security forces have stabilized poppy cultivation fields in different parts of the country, and thousands of acres of land where poppy was cultivated have been destroyed so far.

The Islamic Emirate is committed to eradicating addiction in the country and ending poppy cultivation, and it follows this commitment seriously.

Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, deputy prime minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said at a cabinet meeting this week that the ministry of public works has been tasked with drawing up a plan to build separate mosques for men and women across the country.

These mosques will be built at intervals of 100 kms along major highways across the country, he said.

He said the mosques will also be built at fuel stations on highways.

In addition, Akhund said the ministries of interior and defense and the general directorate of intelligence have been ordered to inspect the granting of licenses to people for weapons and armored vehicles.