The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has arrested five men, including two Chinese citizens. They are suspected of smuggling about 1,000 tons of lithium-containing stones out of the country.
The regime’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said on Jan. 21 that it had seized about 300 tons of these stones in Nangarhar province, and about 700 tons in Kunar province. Both provinces border Pakistan.
Mohammad Rasool Aqab, a head of the Ministry’s Department of Revenue Regulation, said it was proven that the stones contain 30 percent of lithium.
The arrests were made by the Taliban’s security and intelligence agencies. Dr. Bashir, the intelligence department’s chief of operational affairs, told a news conference on Jan. 21 that they had uncovered a plan to smuggle the uncontracted and secretly extracted “precious stones.”…