1000 Tonnes of Coal Extracted In Northern Afghanistan Per Day, Says Taliban

The Northern Coal Authority in Baghlan province announced that one thousand tonnes of coal is extracted daily from government and non-government-owned mines in the northern provinces of Afghanistan.

The Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency reported on Tuesday that the extracted coal is being sold to the traders.

As per the report, the Taliban has officially registered 31 government-owned coal mines and 128 non-government mines in the northern provinces.

Last year, the Taliban had announced that by increasing the extraction and export of coal, the group would provide for 10 percent of Pakistan's daily coal demands.

Afghanistan's coal is considered one of the cheapest ways of supplying fossil energy to Pakistan.

Critics have condemned the unprofessional and indiscriminate extraction of coal in the central and northern regions of Afghanistan and its cheap export to Pakistan as a kind of "looting" of Afghanistan's underground reserves.