Afghanistan Times
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AT-KABUL: Police have seized 98 kilograms of lapis lazuli in the eastern province of Nangarhar that was about smuggle to Pakistan, security officials said on Tuesday.
The ministry of interior said in a statement that the gems were skillfully packed and smugglers were taking them to Pakistan—their evil design has been foiled. It added that the gems were seized in the crossing point of Torkham.
According to the statement, one suspect identified as ‘Rezagul’ was detained and introduced to the judicial organs.
Lapis is a vivid dark blue, like the sky at twilight or the ocean depths. Often it is flecked with specks of pyrite—fool’s gold—which sparkles like tiny starts.
The greatest reserves of this ‘blue treasure’ are in Afghanistan, where it has been mined from the same small area of a single river valley in the remote Afghan province of Badakhshan for more than 6,000 years.
Preventing smuggling of such precious stone is imperative to transform the impoverished nation’s economy at least to same stage.
