Afghanistan: 70 per cent of Farahrud residents lack national identity cards

"Only 30 percent of the residents have identity cards."

Local officials in the Farah province of West Afghanistan have said that at least 70 per cent of the residents of the Farahrud district have no national identity cards, Afghanistan-based news channel TOLO News reported.

Farahrud district governor, Mohammad Sadiq, as quoted by TOLO News said: "Only 30 per cent of the residents have identity cards."

At least 14,000 people hold identity cards in Farahrud while the remaining 70,000 are yet to get the national document, according to figures from the National Statistics and Information Authority in Farah.

Residents of the districts said some of them are 40 years old but still don't have an identity card. They said there is an urgent need to start identity card distribution in the district.

"I want them to give me an identity card here," said Abdul Hakim, a Farahrud resident, as quoted by TOLO News.

"We don't have money to go to the center and apply for an identity card," said Rahim, another resident of the district.

According to the National Statistics and Information Authority in Farah, the department of ID card distribution will be activated in the district in the coming year.

"Hopefully, in the new year, our personnel and everything will be ready and we will start our work," said Abdul Karim Yusuf, head of the National Statistics and Information Authority in Farah, according to TOLO News.

Recently, the media reported that Afghans decry the delay in the issuance of electronic identification cards which adds to their plight in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

They raised their concerns about not getting their ID cards, saying that it has been two weeks since the printing and distribution of electronic ID cards in Kabul stopped, reported Tolo News.

The applicants added that they are unable to register their names online due to technical issues with the Department of Statistics and Information's website.

( With inputs from ANI )