KABUL, March 24: Afghanistan announced on Sunday the cancellation of all passports issued during the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule in a bid to stop “foreign terrorists” travelling on them.

In another measure to stamp out abuse of Afghan passports, the interior ministry said all Afghan nationals needed to have passports issued at other times updated with a new official stamp verifying their passports’ validity.

“The Taliban issued passports to members of Al Qaeda and other foreign terrorists with no identity checks,” Khan Mohammad Khan, head of the passport office told the country’s official television network.

Khan said many blank passports were also stolen during the rule of the Taliban. “Some foreign terrorists have been arrested in different parts of the world carrying Afghan passports even though they were not Afghan citizens,” Khan said.—Reuters