Residents of the Afghan province of Badakhshan complain about the Taliban's illegal hunting of rare animals in the Wakhan National Park. This park is one of Afghanistan's eight national parks and is home to many rare animals and birds.
Source: Sputnik Tajikistan
A local resident, who wished not to be named for security reasons, told Sputnik Tajikistan that after the Taliban* came to power in Afghanistan, a battalion of the border brigade was deployed to the Wakhan region, which borders Tajikistan.
“But, unfortunately, since the deployment of the Taliban battalion in Wakhan, they have been mercilessly hunting deer and Marco Polo sheep, and three times a day the food of the fighters and brigade commanders is prepared from their meat. Not only do the battalion eat the meat of these rare animals, but also every brigade, platoon or detachment commander going home to his family will take with him the carcasses of two or three animals on the luggage of his "ranger," he said.
According to him, the commander of the battalion is Mehrabuddin, a resident of the Jurm district, one of the commanders of Mawlavi Amanuddin, the commander of the Taliban air force.
“Another commander is also from the area, his name is Qadim and he has a son named Massoud. They ruthlessly plunder and destroy the environment and prey on animals. They give the order to hunt, and the rest of the Taliban do not hunt without their permission,” a source told Sputnik Tajikistan.
The Wakhan National Park is one of the 8 national gardens of Afghanistan - Bandi Amir, Bamiyan Plateau (Bamiyan), Heshmatkhan Lake (Kabul), Nuristan Forests, Still Waters of Ghazni, Forests of Darkad (Takhar) and Imam Sahiba (Kunduz). It was founded in 2014 and received this status from the government of Afghanistan.
This park covers the entire Wakhan district, which borders Tajikistan, China and Pakistan and is located between the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains. About 600 species of rare plants and animals have been registered here, such as snow leopard, lynx, wolf, brown bear, red fox, mountain goat, Marco Polo sheep, urial, various types of deer, etc.
About 30,000 people live in the Wakhan region, 55% of whom are Kyrgyz, the rest are Tajik-Vakhis.
According to a Sputnik Tajikistan source, uprooting plants, illegal hunting, grazing, mining and cutting down trees are strictly prohibited by the current legislation of Afghanistan.
“But the Taliban do not comply with this law, and if their lawlessness is not stopped, then in a few months there will be no deer, no goats, no sheep and other rare animals in the mountains of the Wakhan National Park,” he said.
Meanwhile, illegal hunting has been reported in the mountains of the Jurm and Karano Munjan districts of Badakhshan province, where the same rare animals live, and the Taliban do not allow other people to hunt, but hunt around the clock themselves.
* The organization is under UN sanctions or banned due to terrorist activities.
