Afghan security force members destroy a poppy field during an anti-poppy farms campaign in Herat province, Afghanistan, April 4, 2023. Afghan security forces kicked off an anti-poppy farms campaign in the western Herat province, provincial head of Counter-Narcotics Mawlawi Hayatullah Rohani said Wednesday. (Photo by Mashal/Xinhua)
HERAT, Afghanistan, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces kicked off an anti-poppy farms campaign in the western Herat province, provincial head of Counter-Narcotics Mawlawi Hayatullah Rohani said Wednesday.
"We have launched a fight against illicit drugs and poppy fields and have destroyed 241 acres of poppy farms over the past 25 days, and just on Tuesday we smashed three acres of poppy fields in Enjil district," Rohani told Xinhua.
The campaign to eradicate poppy farms would cover all districts in Herat province, the official said.
The supreme leader of the Afghan caretaker administration Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada in a decree issued in April 2022 banned the cultivation of illegal crops including poppy, and drug processing and trafficking. ■