According to Sar-e-Pol provincial officials, illegal excavations, trafficking and neglect have led to the deterioration or disappearance of some of the province's most valuable historical heritage.

Abdul Qodus Fahim, the head of Sar-e-Pol provincial Information & Culture Directorate, reported a rise in smuggling of ancient artifacts in the province and demanded law enforcement do more to prevent it.

He accused the Ministry of Information & Culture (MoIC) of neglecting to coordinate with law enforcement to prevent illegal excavations and subsequent looting.

"Some unauthorized groups are conducting illegal diggings in historical sites in the area...and the Ministry of Information and Culture doesn't focus on renovation and rehabilitation of these sites," said Fahim.

Fahim blamed the central Ministry of Information & Culture (MoIC) in Kabul for not having a working strategy to protect the province's cultural heritage and derided the construction of residential plots and government offices in Sar-e-Pul Bala Hesar, one of the most historic areas of the province.

Nearly twenty historical monuments are said to exist in Sar-e-Pol, including the Shrine of Imam Zada Syed Yahya – one of the only remaining architectural vestiges of the Saljoqi period – as well as Langar Khana-e-Suzma Qala, Tapa-e-Bala Hesar, Tapa-e-Qahqaha, Ziarat-e-Dokhtar Shah, Kafir Qala and Angusht-e-Shah.

Meanwhile, a number of local residents have complained about the lack of public libraries in the province and called on the MoIC to focus more on the issue.

"We have only two or three libraries in the province which is insufficient to facilitate students and readers, we need the cultural foundations and particularly the Ministry of Information and Culture to concentrate on it more," Ayamoddin Yaldash, a local Sar-e-Pol resident Ayamoddin said.

Fahim said that the protection of cultural heritage, historical sites and expansion of access to literature were among the basic responsibilities of the government and the relevant institutions needed to fulfill their duties.

But as the Afghan government prepares for the departure of the NATO coalition and sees rising expenses – in both financial and human costs – this year, it is hard to imagine significant resources will be reallocated toward cultural preservation any time soon. The likeliness of a such a campaign seems even more doubtful in the context of the upcoming spring elections, to which most attention and financial resources available will be dedicated until April.