At least 523 residents of capital Kabul have been killed in a total of 2,632 criminal cases taking place during the past one year.
Pajhwok Afghan News on April 18 asked Kabul police to provide information about criminal incidents of each province relating to 2018.
Pajhwok also asked police to provide reports of criminal incidents taking place in Kabul and each administrative and police district.
However, Kabul police said the information about criminal records should be taken from the Ministry of Interior (MoI). However, the ministry denied to provide the information and Pajhwok was obliged to complain to the Oversight Commission on Access to Information Law.
Despite the complaint, the MoI did not share the report until December 15 and said the information was confidential.
In a reattempt, the commission obtained criminal records from the MoI of Kabul city only. According to the MoI, 220 criminal cases on average happened each month in Kabul in 2018 or 1397 solar year and each month 44 people killed.
The MoI did not respond to questions regarding the increasing targeted killings and other crimes in Kabul, particularly in the fifth police district, and how many cases they followed during the last one year.
Ajmal Stanikzai, a resident of fifth police district of Kabul, said that criminal incidents were at peak in the entire city, particularly in the fifth police district, and people were worried about the situation.
“Criminal incidents happen on a daily basis in the fifth police district. The area has turned lawless. Over 500 people were murdered in just one year, officials should die of shame,” he said.
Nargis, a resident of Panjsad Famili area of Kabul city, said: “This area has turned into a den of gangsters and armed criminals because of many criminal incidents happen here.”
“People in our area cannot attend night time activities due to armed robbers and thieves. When you have no money, the thieves would stab you, they stop people returning from wedding parties during night and take their jewelries, the situation is very bad here, robbers killed two moneychangers and two shopkeepers in our area this year,” she said. She said police failed to control the situation and people lost trust in the fore.
Abdul Wahid Taqat, a military expert and retired general, says incompetency of security organs, lack of coordination between them, interferences, lack of punishments and the culture of impunity are factors that contribute to the increasing crimes in Kabul city.
Taqat said the government’s performance in general was very limited in controlling crimes.
“Unfortunately controlling crimes has no importance for the government, particularly for security organs,” he said.
He said people involved in corruption should be removed from security organs, intelligence organs should be empowered and the culture of impunity done away with for controlling crimes.
President Ashraf Ghani last month in a security meeting expressed his dissatisfaction over police performance and gave the police a three-month time to prove to improve security, end corruption and bring about reforms.
“I and people are not satisfied from Kabul police performance. You failed to control security problems of people and achieve convincing results,” he had said.
According to a Pajhwok report, over 92,000 criminal incidents happened in the country during the last five years.
The report published by the MoI on May 12 showed that 17,800 people were killed and 11,518 others wounded during the last five years across the country.
These crimes included drug smuggling, fraud, pickpocketing, human trafficking, kidnapping, goods trafficking, eloping, usurping land and other crimes.
