KABUL (Pajhwok): Pajhwok’s findings show that Qurbanaid identified Jaghori district of Ghazni province as the location of a Qurbani project on its Facebook page, but the organisation now says the programme was carried out in Pakistan. Local residents and officials have also denied any knowledge of the project being implemented in Jaghori.
Qurbanaid published eight posts on its Facebook page between June 5 and 9, 2026, about the Qurbani programme in Jaghori, sharing several photographs.
In one post, the organisation wrote that the Qurbani programme had been successfully carried out in Afghanistan.
Qurbanaid later published more photographs related to the programme, with the captions identifying the location as “Jaghori, Afghanistan”, indicating that Jaghori was where the programme had been implemented.
Background to the project
Abdul Malik Habibi, head of the Afghan Poverty Relief Charity Organization (APRCO), which works to combat poverty in Ghazni province, told Pajhwok that before Eid al-Adha in 2026, a representative of Malaysia-based Qurbanaid, Haji Aswad, had travelled to Afghanistan and held talks with his organisation about implementing a large-scale Qurbani project.
According to Habibi, an initial agreement was reached between the two sides. The project was planned for seven Afghan provinces, including Ghazni and involved the sacrifice of between 1,500 and 2,500 cattle, with the meat to be distributed among thousands of needy families.
He said the project’s total value was estimated at around $850,000.
Habibi said his organisation had taken several practical steps in preparation for the project, including beginning preliminary arrangements to procure cattle for sacrifice.
However, he said he was later informed by the “Malaysian donor’s representative” that the project would no longer be implemented through APRCO. Instead, it had been assigned to another organisation, Ariana Aid, in Ghazni province.
Habibi said the Malaysian organisation had also sent him photographs of the people expected to implement the project through Ariana Aid, along with their contact numbers. According to him, these individuals had been assigned responsibility for carrying out the project.
To support his account, Habibi shared with Pajhwok emails, contact details and other documents that he said had been sent to him by Haji Aswad, Qurban Aid’s representative.
Habibi also said that around the time of Eid al-Adha, dozens of photographs were published on Qurbanaid’s official social media pages, accompanied by captions stating that part of the project had been successfully implemented in Jaghori district of Ghazni province and that the sacrificial meat had been distributed among eligible families.
Jaghori residents unaware of the project
To verify these claims, Pajhwok spoke to residents in several areas of Jaghori district, Ghazni province, to establish whether the project had been carried out there during Eid al-Adha in 2026.
Asadullah Rezaei, a resident of the Sang-i-Masha area, told Pajhwok: “No organisation came to our area to carry out sacrifices and we are not aware of any such project being implemented.”
Pajhwok also separately interviewed two other residents and tribal elders from the Ghajur and Anguri areas of Jaghori district, Ghulam Shah Hakimi and Ali Sana Anguri.
They said they had heard of such a Qurbani programme by an aid organisation for the first time from Pajhwok’s reporter. They added that no such large-scale sacrificial project had been carried out in their areas, either during Eid al-Adha in 2026 or before.
Jaghori district chief: We would have known if such a large project had been implemented
Mawlawi Hizbullah, the district chief of Jaghori, said no aid organisation had contacted the district administration about the Qurbani project, and no official coordination had taken place regarding its implementation.
He added that if a project involving the sacrifice of hundreds or thousands of cows or bulls had been carried out in the district, the administration would certainly have known about it and would have had information about the implementation process.
Economy department: No such project registered
Mawlawi Mirza Mohammad, head of the monitoring department at the Ghazni Economy department, said any domestic or foreign organisation wishing to implement a project in Ghazni province must first be introduced by the Ministry of Economy and obtain coordination and approval from the provincial Economy department before starting its activities.
He said the directorate registers details of each project, including the donor’s name, the implementing organisation’s identity, the area of operation, the budget and the project’s duration.
He said no Qurbani project had been registered in Ghazni in 2025 or 2026 under the names Afghan Aid or Ariana Aid, and neither organisation had coordinated with the Economy department regarding the implementation of such a project.
He added that the most recent registered Qurbani project in the province had been carried out in 2024 by a Turkish charity. Around 30 cattle were sacrificed under that project, and the meat was distributed among needy families.
Ariana Aid: We did not implement the project
Pajhwok also contacted Ariana Aid’s office and the individuals reportedly assigned responsibility for implementing the project to obtain their official responses.
In its formal written response to Pajhwok, Ariana Aid officials in Ghazni province said the organisation had not implemented a Qurbani project in Afghanistan on behalf of any Malaysian donor during Eid al-Adha in 2026.
The response added: “Therefore, the information provided to you claiming that Ariana Aid was responsible for implementing such a project is incorrect and far from the truth.”
Pajhwok also contacted the individuals whom Haji Aswad had identified as the project’s local officials.
Among them, Syed Imran and Syed Nawroz said in separate written responses that they had not been responsible for implementing the project in Afghanistan.
Qurban Aid: Project was implemented in Pakistan
Haji Aswad, a representative of Malaysia-based Qurban Aid, told Pajhwok that the 2026 Qurbani programme had been implemented in Pakistan for Afghan refugees, not in Afghanistan, and that the photographs of the programme had been published from that location.
In his written response, he added: “To remove any doubt, we must clarify that Qurbanaid did not fund or implement any Qurbani project in Afghanistan during this year’s Qurbani campaign.”
Pajhwok sent Qurbanaid separate emails and messages asking why posts published on the organisation’s official Facebook page had identified Afghanistan and Jaghori district in Ghazni province as the project’s location if the 2026 Qurbani programme had been carried out in Pakistan for Afghan refugees.
The organisation has not yet responded to this question.
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