KABUL (SW) – Findings by Salam Watandar indicate that in the last seven months of the Islamic Emirate rule, nearly 45 million afghanis worth of money has been extorted from commuters at three spots in Kabul city alone.
Salam Watandar has investigated the state of affairs at the Sarai-e-Shamaly, Kota Sangi and Pamir Cinema squares in Kabul to follow up on this issue, and the findings show that 44.6 million afghanis have been extorted from drivers in the stations of these three areas alone.
A number of drivers at these stations told Salam Watandar that they carry passengers 7 to 10 times a day, and each time they travel, a taxi car is asked to pay 10 afghanis and a mini-bus is required to pay 20 afghanis for each trip. According to the department of public transportation of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, at least 258 mini-buses are registered to operate from here.
Secondly, the number of taxi cars operating at Wasilabad-e-Pain, Wasalabad-e-Bala, Chehelston and Wazirabad station – which are originate their journey from the Pamir Cinema station – are numbered at 174. Similarly, the number of taxi cars operating via the Sarai-e-Shamaly, Qambar, Dasht-e-Barchi and Kota Sangi cinemas number around 233.
Officials estimate that the number of unregistered vehicles is twice as many as the registered vehicles. According to officials, most of the unregistered vehicles are operating as taxi and mini-buses for public transport.
Based on the information from the Ministry of Transport and Aviation and comparing it with information received from drivers, Salam Watandar found that more than 100,000 afghanis were extorted daily from vehicles registered with the Ministry of Transport alone, which number 665 in these three areas.
At the same time, the amount of money extorted from unregistered vehicles with the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, which according to the officials of this ministry is estimated at 1330 vehicles, is more than 100,000 afghanis per day.
However, the findings show that the total amount of money extorted over the past seven months from drivers in the three areas amounts to about 45 million afghanis, the fate of which is unknown.
In an interview with Salam Watandar, a number of drivers said that these people extorting the money claimed to be affiliated with the Islamic Emirate.
Ahmadullah, one of the drivers, said: “We are told that they are introduced from the seminaries, but they do not have anything that we can see for authentication if they are from any seminary or introduced through the government or the Islamic Emirate.”
Gholam Sakhi, another driver, said: “Well, we are not satisfied, they are here when we do not pay, they puncture our tires, they take the money by force.”
But, the relevant security officials deny that these people are affiliated with these institutions and say that they have nothing to do with these people.
Zia-ul-Haq Mashal, the administrative deputy of Kabul’s third security district, says the money is being collected in the district, but Qudratullah Amin, the head of the third district, denied it to Salam Watandar, calling it arbitrary.
Meanwhile, Haji Atef, administrative deputy director of Kabul’s 17th security district, said he was unaware of their whereabouts and said that if there were any individuals, they would arrest them.
Siddiqullah Mansour Mujahid, head of Kabul’s first security district, also said that these people did not belong to them, but admitted that extortion was taking place at some of these stations. He refers the responsibility for investigating and preventing this action to the Ministry of Transport.
However, Imam al-Din Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, acknowledged the extortion of drivers at a number of Kabul bus stations and said that they may have been introduced illegally and temporarily by some institutions. The spokesman for the Ministry of Transport, however, stressed that the ministry had not appointed anyone.
We also tried to get the response of the Kabul Police Command in connection with these extortions; But police officials did not respond to our repeated calls.
It should be noted that in the densely populated city of Kabul, there are hundreds of bus stations and thousands of passenger cars hence the amount of extortions may be several times more than the findings of Salamat Watandar.
ENDS
