By Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa
On New Year's Day, 2022, the twitter account for the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), an intelligence agency controlled by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, posted a video of a raid where law enforcement agents arrested three people and seized 3,000 liters of an alcoholic substance just to be dumped into a canal in Kabul.
د ا.ا.ا د استخباراتو لوی ریاست ځانګړې عملیاتي قطعې د یو لړ مؤثقو کشفي معلومات پر اساس د کابل ښار کارته چهار سیمه کې درې تنه شراب پلورونکي له شاوخوا درې زره لېتره شرابو/الکولو سره یو ځای ونیول.
نیول شوي شراب له منځه یوړل شول او شراب پلورونکي عدلي او قضايي ارګانونو ته وسپارل شول. pic.twitter.com/qD7D5ZIsuL— د استخباراتو لوی ریاست-GDI (@GDI1415) January 1, 2022
The post reads “A special operational unit of the GDI arrested three liquor dealers in the Kart-e-Char area of Kabul with about 3,000 liters of alcohol, according to a series of credible intelligence reports. The seized liquor was destroyed and the liquor sellers were handed over to the judiciary.”
"Muslims have to seriously abstain from making and delivering alcohol," a religious leader said in the video.
Although the sale and consumption of alcohol was already illegal in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate has been noticeably more strict on the matter, according to AFP. They even promised to do so, according to Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, one of the founders of the Taliban.
What will come next for the men in handcuffs is not known, but nothing light can be predicted. Even under the former regime, a man in northern Afghanistan was given 80 lashes for being caught consuming alcohol back in 2012.