Lagatar24 Desk
Kabul, Jan 24: Five men, including two Chinese nationals, have been arrested by the Taliban for allegedly smuggling an estimated 1,000 metric tons of lithium-bearing rocks out of the country.
The Chinese nationals were reportedly trying to smuggle the ‘precious’ stones from Afghanistan to China through Pakistan with the help of their Afghan allies.
As per information, the arrests and confiscation of the rock took place in the frontier town of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.
Sources say the rocks contain up to 30 per cent of lithium and were extracted secretly from the Afghan provinces of Nuristan and Kunar, along the border with Pakistan.
The Chinese nationals and their Afghan collaborators were planning to illegally transport the precious stones to China through Pakistan, said the Taliban intelligence officials.
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Moreover, the ties between China and Afghanistan has been strained since December 12, when five Chinese nationals were injured in a bomb and gun attack by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) targeting a hotel in Kabul. The attack led to Beijing’s tepid approach as China in its advisory asked citizens to leave Afghanistan.
However, in November last year, Afghanistan was seen in talks with China to rekindle the ancient Silk Road trade routes to help its declining economy. But it seems that Afghanistan also had the same plan as China.
On August 15 in 2021, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, China expressed its willingness to provide friendly cooperation to the landlocked nation. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also intended to play a constructive role in Afghanistan. China tried to emerge as a trusted ally of the Afghan Taliban regime similar to Pakistan, Russia, and Iran. Beijing treats the landlocked country with tact and caution, with no big investment or assistance, except for a few trades in cheap goods.
