Travel on highways in provinces in the west has become a worse nightmare than before for truck and bus drivers. Apart from robbers, they also have to deal with extortionists in police uniform. An investigation.
Incidents of extortion and kidnapping between Herat and Farah have increased over the past year.
Travel on highways in provinces in the west has become a worse nightmare than before for truck and bus drivers. Apart from robbers, they also have to deal with extortionists in police uniform. An investigation.
Incidents of extortion and kidnapping between Herat and Farah have increased over the past year. Authorities in the Farah Police Headquarters have identified some 50 policemen including officers involved in extortion rackets. Their files have been sent to the Attorney General’s Office (AG’s Office).
Herat’s busy highways are good business for rogue police. There are hundreds of trucks ferrying goods to and from the two dry ports of Islam Qala and Torghundi in the province. Highways link Herat to also Badghis and Ghor. Everywhere there are tolls to be paid both for commercial and passenger vehicles.
A driver who Killid interviewed in Mirdawood on the Herat border says the tell-tale signs of beating on his forehead and under his eyes are the result of police excesses. Policemen stop vehicles on the pretext of searching for contraband. Only if drivers agree to their demands for money are they allowed to proceed. If they don’t, they could be held overnight, insulted and beaten up.
Still another driver told Killid that the extortion starts at the Mirdawood check post and continues all the way to Adreskan, Shindand and other areas like Shawez, Farad Road and Tuot Chakab. There are some 150 checkposts, and at each post drivers are forced to pay 15-20 Afs. (68 Afs are equal to one USD.) A driver could end up paying 2,500 Afs (36 USD) per journey. If he resists, he could be beaten or have his vehicle damaged.
A third driver, who like most drivers did not want to reveal his name, confirms his vehicle was trashed by the police. “I swear to God that I am tired of this situation. There is extortion at every checkpost in Herat. There is no one to feel our pain; neither do they have ears to hear,” he says.
Killid spoke to chief commander Aminullah Amin who admits that extortion is a problem, but he claims the situation on the highways is better than before. He claims the highway police were again in control of Adresken and Shindand districts where three policemen were dismissed for taking bribes and following which the rest of the “extortionists fled”.
Probe underway
Intelligence chief in the Herat Police Headquarters Nayeem Ghoyour says many police men against whom there were complaints of extortion are being investigated. While he would not name even one, he says high ranking government officials are trying to sabotage the probes. He says that “putting stones in his way” has made trouble for him, but he was not going to back down on corruption even if there are threats to his life.
The spokesperson for Herat Police Abdul Rawoof Ahmadi says many policemen have been dismissed and their files sent to the AG’s Office. He called on drivers not to give in to the corrupt but call 119 for help. It is a special telephone number for anyone wishing to report instances of extortion and corruption.
General Yunus, the military head at the AG’s Office said they are investigating complaints against 13 police officers in 11 dossiers that were forwarded last year. All are related to cases of highway extortion.
According to Farid Bakhtawar, head of the Farah provincial council, extortion by police and customs officials has gone up by 30 percent. “Hundreds of complaints have been recorded in the Farah provincial council,” he says. No action has been taken, he adds because government officials themselves are involved.
Limited action
Police commander of Farah Toryalai Abdiani has dismissed some 60 police men and officers for being involved in extortions on the highways. Dossiers of most have been sent to military AG’s Office in the past one month. “The dismissed men include Noor Ahmad the police commander of Balaboolook district,” he says. The chief of the military AG’s Office, Hafizullah Faizi, admits to receiving only one dossier. Extortions are mainly on the highway to Farah Road because of lack of monitoring. Most checkpost commanders are also involved, he says. Faizi thinks things will improve only if the military AG’s Office is given control of monitoring the highways. He says he has not sent 60 dossiers to Farah military AG’s Office. In his opinion, extortion was not restricted to the highway between Herat and Farah but also in Ghor, which was confirmed by local authorities.
Abdul Hai Khatibi, spokesperson, says at least 80 checkposts were involved in illegally taking money from drivers. When trucks travel from Herat to Ghor, drivers could pay up to 20,000 Afs (291 USD) in bribes on a single trip, according to Khatibi. Traders simply pass on the cost to consumers who have no choice but to buy at high prices.
He says many appeals have been sent to officials in Ghor, the governor of Herat and highway police about the extortion rackets but nothing has changed.
Jailani Farhad, spokesperson for the Herat governor, says the local administration has been spoken to, and also security agencies, to prevent the practice on the highway to Ghor. He claims an increase in monitoring has reduced the number of extortion cases reported last year.
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