Pakistan, Jan. 13 -- Recent accounts of Afghanistan's war driven economy point to an alarming reality. Control over mineral resources has become a means of coercion and financing for violent groups, creating anxiety across neighbouring states and posing a serious threat to regional stability. Rather than serving reconstruction or public welfare, the mining sector under Taliban authority reflects a closed and coercive system shaped by force secrecy and exclusion.

Events in Badakhshan and Takhar illustrate how mining has been turned into an instrument of power accumulation. Instead of contributing to local development, extraction activities are used to secure revenue and tighten political control. Official claims of improved security and e...