The Taliban is investigating an Afghan man’s claim that he is 140 years old – which would make him the oldest person ever to have lived.
Aqel Nazir, who lives in the country’s eastern Khost province, says he was born in the 1880s.
He claims to remember celebrating the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919 alongside King Amanullah Khan, the Afghan leader who launched a campaign against the British, while in his thirties.
Nazir, who lives in the picturesque hills in Khost, said: ‘I was in the palace with King Amanullah Khan.
‘I was over 30 at the time and I remember saying that the British had fled and knelt down.
‘Everyone was happy and thanked King Amanullah Khan for chasing the British away.
‘Many leaders accompanied us to the Arg [presidential palace], but now all of them have passed away.’
The great-great grandfather does not have any documents to support his claim, but his family are also on board with gaining official recognition of his status.
Aqel Nazir, who lives in the country’s eastern Khost province, says he was born in the 1880s
The ruling Taliban administration has dispatched a a special civil registration team to assess his true age
Khyal Wazir, his 50-year-old grandson, said: ‘He is my grandfather, and I have my grandchildren as well.’
Another grandson, Abdul Hakim Sabari, said: ‘We request the government confirm our grandfather’s age using an ID or any other scientific method or documents, to prove he is 140 years old.’
In an attempt to solve the mystery, the ruling Taliban administration has dispatched a a special civil registration team to assess his true age.
Mustaghfar Gurbaz, a Taliban spokesman for the province, said: ‘If confirmed by documents or assessments, we will work to register him as the oldest person in the world.’
If verified, he would comfortably take the title of the oldest person to have ever lived.
That record is held by Jeanne Calment, who was born in 1875 and passed away in 1997, 122 years later.
The world’s current verified oldest living person is Inah Canabarro Lucas, a Brazilian nun who turned 116 last June.
Another Brazilian woman, Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva, is hoping to have her own claim to be 120 years of age verified by Guinness World Records.
But experts have already cast doubt on Nazir’s claims.
The world’s current verified oldest living person is Inah Canabarro Lucas
The Brazilian nun turned 116 last June
Valery Novoselov, a geriatrician at Moscow State University, told Russian outlet AIF: ‘There are no reliably registered men on the planet older than 114 to 115 years [of age].
‘In the Caucasus in the 60s, they also recorded ‘long-livers’ – shepherds who allegedly lived to 168 years.
‘These are so-called games with age. There are no documents, no reliable data – which means this is an unrealistic picture.’
In 2015, a man claiming to be 100 years old applied for asylum in Germany after an extraordinary eight-month journey from Afghanistan.
Like Nazir, Abdul Qadir Azizi did not have any identity papers, but his family claimed his year of birth was 1905.
Azizi, who is deaf and blind, spent one month travelling across two continents from his home in the Afghan town of Baghlan to reach Germany.
His family fled after three of Azizi’s sons were killed by the Taliban.
The plight of the elderly in Afghanistan has worsened since the Taliban takeover.
In 2024, they effectively abolished the pension system, leaving many older Afghans struggling to meet basic needs.
Previously, anyone over the age of 65 received a monthly payment of around $100 from the state.
