The Taliban on Tuesday announced a ban on the use of foreign currency in Afghanistan, a move sure to cause further disruption to an economy pushed to the brink of collapset.
The surprise move came hours after at least 25 people were killed and more than 50 wounded when gunmen attacked Afghanistan’s biggest military hospital after two heavy explosions at the site in central Kabul.
“The economic situation and national interests in the country require that all Afghans use Afghan currency in their every trade,” the Taliban said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
The use of US dollars is widespread at Afghanistan’s markets, while border areas use the currency of neighboring countries, such as Pakistan, for trade.
The Taliban government is pressing for the release of billions of US dollars of central bank reserves as the drought-stricken nation faces a cash crunch, mass starvation and a new migration crisis.
Afghanistan had parked billions of US dollars in assets overseas with the US Federal Reserve and other central banks in Europe, but that money has been frozen since the Taliban ousted the Western-backed government in August.
US-led forces and many international donors departed, leaving the country without grants that financed three-quarters of public spending.
The Afghan Ministry of Finance said that it had a daily tax take of about 400 million Afghanis (US$4.4 million).
Yesterday, officials said that a Taliban commander was among the fighters killed when his men responded to an Islamic State attack on Sardar Daud Khan Hospital.
Hamdullah Mokhlis, a member of the Haqqani network and an officer in the Badri Corps special forces, is the most senior figure to have been killed since the Taliban seized the capital.
“When he got the information that Sardar Daud Khan Hospital was under attack, Maulvi Hamdullah [Mokhlis], the commander of the Kabul corps, immediately rushed to the scene,” a Taliban media official said.
“We tried to stop him, but he laughed. Later we found out that he was martyred in the face-to-face fight at the hospital,” he added.
The attack — claimed by the Taliban’s hardline rivals, the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) — began with a suicide bomber detonating his explosives near the hospital’s entrance.
The Taliban deployed special forces to the roof of the building in a helicopter.
In a statement released on its Telegram channels, IS-K said: “Five Islamic State group fighters carried out simultaneous coordinated attacks.”
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid played down the death toll, saying that the attack was put down within 15 minutes thanks to the rapid intervention.
Additional reporting by AFP
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