The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue announced that its inspectors collected at least 213 mental patients in Balkh and Kabul provinces and handed them over to the Afghan Red Crescent Society.
This action continues nationwide under orders from Hibatullah Akhundzada, the group’s leader.
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue wrote in a newsletter on Wednesday, October 7th, that these patients were handed over to the Afghan Red Crescent for treatment or custody in asylums.
The ministry had previously reported in September the identification and collection of 1,510 mental patients across various provinces.
According to the World Health Organization, one in five people in Afghanistan suffers from mental disorders.
Experts say mental illness has increased following Taliban rule over Afghanistan and the spread of poverty and unemployment.
