DUSHANBE, July 10, 2008, Asia-Plus — In 22 of 33 Afghan provinces, production of drugs has been eradicated completely, Afghan Minister of Interiors Zarar Ahmad Moqbil announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on July 9.
According to him, in other provinces production of dugs has reduced considerably and “there are no poppy plantations along the border with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.”
“We hope we will manage to eradicate poppy crops in the near future,” the Afghan minister said.
For his part, Tajik Minister of Interiors Mahmadnazar Solehov told reporters that they had signed a memorandum on cooperation in jointly fighting terrorism, drug trafficking, and transnational crime.
The Afghan minister noted that the Afghan parliament had recently endorsed the plan of withdrawal of Intentional Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) from Kabul.
According to him, such a decision has resulted from numerous terrorist acts taking place in the Afghan capital city. “The majority of terrorist acts are committed in Kabul, they target collation forces and mainly civilians are killed in these terrorist acts,” Moqbil said.
According to him, international troops will start withdrawing from Kabul this October.
Commenting on the suicide attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, which killed 41 people and injured 141 people, the Afghan minister said that there are countries that are interested in impeding the stabilization process in Afghanistan. The attack on the Indian Embassy was masterminded in terrorist camps in certain neighboring countries, according to him. “Terrorists are being trained in certain neighboring countries but not in Afghanistan,” Moqbil stated.
