Loggers stage demonstration in Kunar

Timber traders in the eastern province of Kunar staged a demonstration on December 5, demanding they be granted permission to export wood from the heavily forested region. In recent years, residents of the province have been cutting down trees and smuggling the logs to neighbouring Pakistan, but provincial officials recently banned the trade. Police in Kunar have arrested 19 Pakistani nationals on charges of timber-smuggling over the past two months.