The Taliban in Afghanistan has accidentally transferred around $800,000 into the bank account of the Afghan Embassy in Tajikistan and is now asking for it to be returned.
The mission, whose head has professed his allegiance to the deposed government and firm opposition to the Taliban.
According to reports the embassy, the money had been earmarked by former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government as funding for a school for refugee children in Tajikistan.
When the Taliban chased Ghani out of Kabul, however, the transfer did not go through. The transfer of funds to the Dushanbe mission was later made all the same.
“We have not built the school, but for four months now, teachers and Embassy staff have been getting their salary out of these funds. All the money is being spent on the needs of the Embassy and of citizens of Afghanistan,” reports quoted a source saying.
The same person stated it would, in any case, be impossible to transfer money from Dushanbe to an entity that the host government in Tajikistan formally deems a terrorist organization.
The acting Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan, Zahir Aghbar, has emerged as a vocal opponent to the Taliban regime and has spoken in support of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, or NRF.