Pakistan, Jan. 21 -- Power in Afghanistan today is not measured by public consent or institutional authority, but by control over revenue streams that operate beyond law and scrutiny. Nowhere is this clearer than in the Taliban's takeover of the mining sector, where gold and other strategic minerals have become instruments of domination rather than tools of recovery. Behind official claims of security and economic stabilization lies a system of extraction rooted in force, exclusion, and secrecy. Events in Badakhshan and Takhar expose how mining has been transformed into a mechanism for power consolidation, coercive control, and financial insulation, revealing a governing model that prioritizes regime survival over national welfare.

The u...