RASC News Agency: Haji Bashir Noorzai, long infamous as one of Afghanistan’s most notorious drug traffickers, has, under the shadow of Taliban rule, undergone an astonishing transformation. Today, he is not only exonerated of his past crimes but is publicly celebrated as a “founder or financial patron” of ostensibly charitable and economic institutions. The fortune he now wields estimated in the millions of dollars derives from the very networks that the Taliban either cannot control or have deliberately enabled, a pattern that has become emblematic of Afghanistan’s shadow economy.
Noorzai spent 17 years behind bars, yet within three years, he re-emerged as a millionaire. This meteoric return unfolded under Taliban dominance a regime under which organized plunder of mines and national resources has become normalized. When ethnic ties, dubious financial histories, and proximity to power intersect, figures like Noorzai inevitably secure their share of the spoils shares the Taliban neither obstruct nor question, instead lending them an air of legitimacy through silence or tacit approval.
The sources of Haji Bashir Noorzai’s wealth remain opaque: there is no registered income, no evidence of tax payments, and no transparency. These ambiguities previously led to his arrest and prosecution. Yet, in the new Taliban order, economic transparency has been replaced by political and religious endorsement of questionable fortunes a system designed to conceal corruption and eliminate accountability.
Most recently, Noorzai appears to have discovered a “Sharia-compliant” avenue for laundering money under the guise of piety: a one-million-dollar donation to the Eidgah Mosque in Maiwand. This is the same mechanism the Taliban have systematically exploited turning religious offerings and projects into instruments for whitewashing illicit wealth, with no inquiry into the source of the funds.
Figures like Noorzai are subsequently elevated, adorned with religious and ethnic titles from “Zaeem” to “Amin al-Din” and imposed upon society as paragons of faith, with Taliban propaganda apparatuses portraying them as models of piety. Meanwhile, the impoverished and defenseless populace, unaware of the intricate mechanics of corruption, becomes the unwitting victim of this narrative construction.
The harsh reality is that, in countries with weak institutions and unaccountable governance, manufactured reputations flourish with alarming ease. The Taliban, exploiting religion and sacred symbols as tools, have created an environment where stories steeped in trafficking, corruption, and plunder are sanitized under the banners of “charity” and “piety.” This is neither a matter of religious concern nor patriotic intent it is the inevitable outcome of a governance system that manages corruption rather than curbing it.
