Wheat smuggling to Pakistan main reason of price hike: Taliban

ISLAMABAD (NNI): The ruling Taliban in Afghanistan have termed wheat smuggling to the neighbouring Pakistan as one of the main reasons for price hike of wheat and flour in the war-torn Afghanistan saying the crisis is temporary and would be overcome soon.

"There are some problems with regard to price hike of food commodities particularly wheat and flour. But its reasons are temporary. One of the reasons is that the convoys of wheat and flour reached in Afghanistan from Iran have reportedly been secretly smuggled to Pakistan", "Talibans spokesman in Kandahar, Abdul Hai Mutamaen told the BBC in an interview.

Earlier, the World Food Programme had expressed concern that if the prices of food continue upward trend, a large number of people of urban and rural areas of Afghanistan would face lot of problems. The WFP in its statement has said that the prices had fallen after the reopening of the Iranian border with Afghanistan but have now once again shot up.

Mutmaen said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is taking steps to check the situation. "If the situation is checked, I am certain it would have positive effects on the prices. Moreover, the price of wheat and flour would decrease once adequate quantity of goods reach from Turkmenistan and Iran. The problems are not serious and we believe these would be resolved soon", said the spokesman.

Mutmaen said that Taliban have signed an agreement on wheat supply with Pakistan government. The negotiations on opening of the route were also progressing but the Foreign Minister was not available in Pakistan and the process was suspended till the next delegation. "Now it is not known when will the next delegation pay visit to Pakistan. However, we hope that Pakistan has made commitments with us and would open route for food commodities", he added.

The Taliban official said that Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has signed agreement with Kazakhstan on wheat supply. Some quantity of wheat has already reached. The 100kg-wheat bag is being provided to the Afghans in Kandahar on one lakh Afghanis and the process is continuing. "We are trying to import more wheat to arrest the increase in wheat prices", he said.