Abductions have increased after a short lull in Herat and it shows on the faces of anxious traders and entrepreneurs in the province. Killid’s Shoaib Tanha investigates.
Abductions have increased after a short lull in Herat and it shows on the faces of anxious traders and entrepreneurs in the province. Killid’s Shoaib Tanha investigates.Businessmen have given up traveling without armed guards. Even government officials are fearful of being kidnapped.
Early in the winter of 2011, people who were dressed in police uniforms whisked Ghulam Sakhi Zurmati, a trader from Herat province who was in the national body builders’ team, away from his house.
Zurmati says he was bound hand and foot in chains and taken to Bagh Dasht in the centre of Herat city. The kidnappers demanded one million USD in ransom from his family. After 10 days, when his family could not pay, they took him to a village called Seyoshan in Guzara district, Herat province. The four kidnappers forced him into a hole in the ground and tortured him for days. They gave him electric shocks, beat him and forced him to stay awake and hungry. “I could not bear the torture and passed out many times,” he recalls. After 72 days in captivity Zurmati was released when his family paid the abductors 150,000 USD.
The experience has scarred him for life. From a confident body builder he has become a bundle of nerves unable to complete anything he starts. He wants the police to find the men who have brutalised him, and prosecute them for the crime.
Schoolboy abducted
In another case of kidnapping for ransom a 13-year-old schoolboy, Ahmad Ersad, from Afghan Turk High school in Herat who was freed by the security forces, says he was beaten many times by the kidnappers who demanded 200,000 USD from his family.
He says: “Two months back when I was going to my school in the morning I was abducted by four armed persons who were riding a Corolla. They took me to Guzara district in Herat province.”
He adds: “For six days the kidnappers tortured me. When they contacted my family they beat me so my family could hear my screams.”
The police have nabbed one of his kidnappers Rustam. A very remorseful Rustam said the abduction was inadvertent, and he should be punished. “I did not intend to become a kidnapper. My friends told me to find a job,” he tells Killid. He says he should be severely punished to detract others from a life of crimes like abduction.
Meanwhile, Mohayudeen Noori, the spokesman of the Herat governor, thinks tighter intelligence and security have reduced the number of abduction cases in the province. Security forces have caught at least one hundred kidnappers, he says.
Neighbours gain
Public opinion contradicts this view. Farhad Majidi, the representative of Herat in Parliament, says, “There is concern that if the gangs of kidnappers are not reined in by security forces, business will entirely flee the province.”
According to Majidi, many investors have moved their businesses to neighbouring provinces, impacting the economy of Heart adversely.
Hameedullah Khadem, head of the provincial Craftsmen Union, believes the neighbouring countries are also involved in the abductions in Herat. They stand to gain with the weakening of the province’s economy. “Tens of factories are closed due to security problems and neglect by the government. If this continues Herat may lose all industry,” says Khadem.
Toor Muhammad Zarifi, a member of Herat’s provincial assembly, sees the kidnappings as a failure of the security agencies. “The kidnappers are from inside Herat and the intelligence does not have the ability to recognise them.”
Frustration high
He also thinks that former anti-government fighters who have joined the peace process have turned to abduction as a means of making easy money as the government has failed to find them jobs.
“The government should monitor and control these unsatisfied brothers to prevent such type of instances,” says Zarifi.
Mullah Abdul Rahman, the Taleban’s district governor for Chesht, Herat province who has had a hand in most of the kidnapping cases joined the peace process three months back along with his subordinates.
Killid’s investigations show Rahman has again turned against the government for failing to act on his many demands.
Habibullah Haqbin, a social analyst, believes there are people within the government who have links with kidnappers.
He says, “We know who are involved. If the government wants we can help identify them.”
Ghulam Mohammad Yusufzai, a businessman, believes the government must take serious note of the recent spike in abductions. He blames the judiciary for failing to deliver justice to people. “Until the justice system delivers with punishments abductions cannot be stopped,” he believes.
Sayed Aqa Saqeb, security commander of Herat, also points to drawbacks in the judiciary system as a problem. “Sentenced criminals often appeal successfully in higher courts; their imprisonment times were reduced and sometimes they were even released because the court did not have all the information,” he explains. Justice officials who were contacted by Killid were not willing to be interviewed.
Alarm bells have also been ringing in Kabul. Minister of Interior Affairs Bismillah Mohammadi recently visited Herat to review the security situation and expressed concern about the rise in kidnappings.
