PUL-I-KHUMRI (SW): Locals in the northern Baghlan province have charged the police chief in Burka district for forcefully collecting taxes from the farmers.
Speaking to Salam Watandar, a number of residents from the Sharshar, Saqab, Laghak and Korakacha villages of the Burka district said that the district police chief has warned them to pay their Usher and Zakat (religious taxes) to him.
These men, mainly farmers sated that a local armed commander named Hakim is also doing the same. The commander Hakim is a local rival of the police chief hence the locals now find themselves between a rock and a hard place. The locals added that the two men have engaged in armed clashes over the issue of taxes.
Habib Gulbahari, the police chief for the province, said in this regard that the district police chief in Burka has not been involved in collecting such taxes. He said no one has forced the people to pay them such taxes but some people willingly pay their Ushor and Zakat to a local commander named Mullah Amir.
Residents of Baghlan however, said that alongside the local commanders, a number of Taliban commander in the Dand-e-Ghori, Dand-e-Shahabuddin, Baghlan Markazi, Burka, Tala wa Barfak and Doshi too are forcing the locals to pay them taxes.
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