Dollars Smuggled From Pakistan Provide Lifeline for the Taliban

Millions of dollars are being smuggled into Afghanistan from Pakistan every day, providing some support for the squeezed economy after the US and Europe denied the Taliban regime access to billions in foreign reserves. For Islamabad, the outflows are exacerbating a rapidly developing economic crisis.

Traders and smugglers are bringing as much as $5 million across the border daily, according to Muhammad Zafar Paracha, general secretary of the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan, a 26-member body of currency dealers. That more than covers the as much as $17 million that Afghanistan’s central bank injects into the market each week.

A wooden case holding US dollars bills on display at the Sara-e Shahzada exchange market in Kabul in October 2022.

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg