The commission to prevent land grabbing and acquisition said that nearly 500,000 acres of land which were grabbed illegally have been returned to the Islamic Emirate.

The commission said that the investigation is underway in some residential towns.

A spokesman for the commission, Abdul Hameed Jahadyar, said that more than 1,600 acres of lands have been reclaimed.

“Around 500,000 acres of land were grabbed in total, of which 1,649 acres have been retaken from the land grabbers in Kabul,” he said.

An owner of one of the residential towns in Kabul, Habibullah Zazai, welcomed the investigation.

“We welcome the investigation of land in our town. We have licenses for 522 acres of land and the commission should investigate this land. We are committed to the procedures of the commission,” he said.

The residents of Kabul also urged the Islamic Emirate to recapture the governmental lands that were grabbed.

“Any land that has been seized—if it is private land, should be returned back to its owners and if that is governmental land it should be returned to the government,” said Asadullah, a resident of Kabul.

“The commission should retake all lands which were grabbed (illegally) because this is the property of Baitulmal (government) and people that has been grabbed by the power individuals,” said Shafiqullah Ahmadi, a resident of Kabul.

The commission was established last year based on a decree of the Islamic Emirate’s supreme leader, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada.