Local sources report that Noor Agha Haidar, the Taliban’s police chief in Ghor province, arrested and imprisoned at least 80 individuals during a recent visit to Pasaband district, allegedly on charges related to the cultivation of narcotic crops.

According to the detainees, many have been held without formal charges or legal proceedings for between 10 and 15 days. In a video obtained by Afghanistan International, the detainees allege that they are being held in inhumane conditions crammed into a small room and denied access to food and water.

The video reportedly shows all 80 detainees confined in a single room measuring approximately five metres long and three metres wide. Local sources say the space is so overcrowded that there is “no room even to pray.”

Some of those detained were reportedly travellers from Helmand province, while others had been collecting firewood or working in the area when they were arrested.

The Taliban’s police command in Ghor has not issued a statement regarding the mass detention. However, it has confirmed that Noor Agha Haidar oversaw the eradication of several poppy fields during his visit to the district.

Several sources have alleged that the Taliban used the poppy eradication campaign as a pretext to detain individuals critical of the group or opposed to its members.