Pajhwak Afghan News, February 8, 2007

People of Parwan complain about increased rates of crimes

"Many criminal incidents that the police approve of can’t reflect the whole picture because in some areas the police are unable to find out about the incidents"

People of Parwan expressed their concern about the increased rates of crimes and defined the main factor as the presence of irresponsible armed groups.This is in the conditions when the governmental sources in Parwan have reported seven murders, twelve cases of theft and one case of abduction in the past three weeks.

But the people claim that the real number of murders and abductions is much higher than this and the government must take serious steps to stop such cases.

Forty year old Abdul Munir, a resident of Panjshir province, told the Pajhwak Afghan News: “My brother, Qand Agha, had a Sprinter car and worked in the route between Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif and earned for his family. A few days back, some thieves in the Salang district of Parwan killed him and stole his car.” Existence of weapons in the hands irresponsible men, he said, were the main cause of these crimes and added that his brother had worked day and night in this route for the past three years but such a thing had never occurred.

Jan Mohammad, thirty and a resident of the Chaikal area of Bagram district expressed his concern about the thefts and claimed that armed thieves had looted twelve shops in one night in Parwan Highway (Chaikal area), last week.

He added: "From that night till now, I sleep in my shop. I have been a shopkeeper for the past ten years but have never slept in my shop but now of fear of thieves I do so."

Also, forty year old Khal Mohammad, resident of Barikhel village of Gulbahar (Jabl Saraj district) who claimed that thieves looted his house a night before, said: "It was midnight when armed thieve entered our house. They tied five people of my home, including me and took the things of my house like the tape recorder, television, carpet and women's jewelry."

A friend of Mohammad, who is representative of the people of Gulbahar, also said that lately a group of armed thieves had come to being who entered houses and stole house goods but their identity is unknown.Crimes have worried people of Charikar (capital of Parwan province) as well.

Waheedullah Nusrat, one of the citizens of the city of Charikar also claimed that people's houses were being looted by unknown people and this has brought the security conditions under question.

He added: "Sometime back government authorities named Parwan as the most secure province of Afghanistan in a formal ceremony, but what kind of security is this?"

In this situation, Mir Abdul Shukoor, head of People's Council of Parwan claimed that majority of the people which are in contact with him are worried about the regular murders and thefts during the past two week. He also said that the people demand from the government to take action to prevent the murders and many other crimes.

This is in the condition where Mohammad Rahim Rasooli, head of Magistrate of Parwan told Pajhwak Afghan News that during the past three weeks seven cases murder (including two of women), twelve cases of theft and one case of abduction have taken place in the capitals and districts of Shinwari, Bagram and Jabl Saraj.

Rasooli added that these figures have been officially reported by the Criminal Administration to the Magistrate and the cases are under investigation.He said: "The reason for the increased number of crimes in Parwan is the recent replacement of the security commander. Some spiteful and people who wanted to cause agitation, seeing the situation as favorable, used this opportunity to murder, loot, abduct and commit other such crimes but this rise in the number of crimes is in a short term and would be over soon."

But Kernel Noorullah, director of prohibition from crimes of Parwan, said that the replacement of the security commander had no connection with these crimes and claimed that the occurrence of such crimes everywhere is a normal matter; sometimes they occur on a large scale and sometimes on a small scale. He also added that twelve year old Muhammad Umar in Bagram district shot his sister-in-law with a Kalashnikov and killed her. Another teenage named Ramin shot at Mohammad Yahya with a Kalashnikov in the marketplace after having an argument with him. Yahya was injured and lost his life in the hospital. This took place in the center of Parwan.

Also, a few days back the police found the body of a citizen of Panjshir province on the Salang Highway who had been killed and his car stolen by thieves. He had a Sprinter and worked as a driver in the route between Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.

As said by the director of prohibition of crimes of Parwan province, sometime back thieves in the Bagram district entered the house of a butcher. Once they found out that they would be discovered, they killed the butcher and stole his property and wealth.

But Muhammad Saalim Ahsas, the new security commander claimed that he had achieved a lot in the past two weeks since he took over. He said that they had uncovered many incidents and also arrested twelve people in connection with some cases including that of murder, theft and abduction.

He said that the police rescued one person who had been kidnapped from the Hoofyan Road of Charikar City and also discovered the secret base of thieves in the Gulbahar area of Jabl Saraj district, where the thieves brought the cars they stole from Kabul and other areas.

But despite this, Abdul Aleem Saqib, one of the experts in the field of security in Parwan said that the sudden increase in crimes in a province which has always been described as safe has shocked people mentally.

Saqib said that many criminal incidents that the police approve of can’t reflect the whole picture because in some areas the police are unable to find out about the incidents, and many of insecurities are not reported by the media.

He says that it is the government's duty to win the people's satisfaction by restoring security, otherwise instability of government in the people's mind will increase day by day and it will change to opposition against the government.

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