A Danish journalist recently triggered a sensation by claiming that the patients were forced to eat human flesh at a Taliban-run Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Afghanistan! The Daily Mail reported that the Danish journalist met a patient, who was released from the rehab centre in January 2022. The patient, named Abdul, revealed that the environment inside the centre was horrific.

Abdul told the journalist that patients were not allowed to eat properly, and they often remained hungry most of the day. Even the Taliban Authorities do not take proper care of the health of patients at the centre. Many have already perished because of hunger. According to Abdul, patients have become increasingly violent without food, as some of them recently killed a man to eat his meat! He further claimed that patients also killed a cat, which was roaming in a park inside the centre, and ate raw meat of the animal.

Meanwhile, César Guedes, Head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Kabul, has informed the press that the Taliban further increased the production of opium. Hence, the price of drugs has decreased, and they have become more readily available.

In a separate development, Abdallah bin Laden, the son of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden (March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011), recently visited the war-torn South Asian country to meet the top Taliban leadership. In its security-related report, the UN Security Council mentioned that Abdallah had visited Afghanistan in October 2021 mainly to discuss the future plan of the Taliban with their top leadership. The UNSC stated in the report that the Taliban Government in Kabul was not taking any steps to control terrorists coming to Afghanistan from foreign countries. As a result, Afghanistan has become a happy hunting ground for the terrorists.

The 29th report of the UN Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which has shaded light on different aspects of sanctions against various terror outfits, has stressed on links between the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The UNSC Team has also mentioned the status of terrorist activities in Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries after the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021. According to the report, the Taliban maintains close ties with al-Qaeda, although the Afghanistan-based terror outfit remains silent on this matter.

It may be noted that al-Qaeda, too, has maintained a strategic silence since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. The multinational militant Sunni Islamic extremist organisation, founded in Peshawar (Pakistan) in 1988, only wished the Taliban for their victory. The Taliban-led Government in Kabul has allowed members of al-Qaeda to roam freely in Afghanistan. They are constructing houses, there. The UNSC report has further claimed that the membership of al-Qaeda has increased from 2,200 to 4,000 in Iraq in recent times. As the Iraqi authorities have released prisoners from different jails, there is an increase in the number of al-Qaeda members in that country, believes the Security Council.

The international community has expressed serious concern over the revelation made by the UNSC report, stressing that the Afghan Taliban would certainly help al-Qaeda spread terror activities in different parts of the globe, destabilising those regions.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das