[ToloNews] Balkh and Samangan residents said the government and the Taliban
 ...Arabic for students ...
are extorting drivers in Mazar-Dara-e-Soof highway.
All government security checkpoints, as well as the Taliban, are extorting truck drivers along the 91-kilometer highway from Mazar-e-Sharif city to Dara-e-Sof district in the northern province of Samangan, a group of drivers and locals claimed.
The drivers ‐ who mostly carry coal in their trucks ‐ said they must give money to each checkpoint along the way while they also must pay Afs4,000 ($50) to the Taliban for each truck.
The drivers, joined by residents of Samangan and Balkh, held a protest outside the Balkh Provincial Council office on Friday.
Many of these drivers did not appear on camera for their own safety.
But one of them, Sher Mohammad, who dared to talk, said: "The Taliban get Afs4,000 from each vehicle every day and earn almost Afs3 million ($38,000) on a daily basis."
Jawed Mubariz, a resident of Samangan who is a student of Balkh University, said he has not been able to go to his home in Dara-e-Sof district over the past three months due to insecurity.
"I am afraid of the highway because it is not secure," said Mubariz.
Members of the provincial councils of Balkh and Samangan confirmed that the problem exists on the highway.
"There are a few government checkpoints on the way to Dara-e-Sof as well as in Sholgar-Mazar highway. All of them are extorting (from drivers)," the head of Samangan Provincial Council, Raz Mohammad, said.
"There is extortion by the Taliban and by the government checkpoints on Dara-e-Sof-Mazar highway," said Mohammad Amin, a member of the Balkh Provincial Council.
The protestors, meanwhile, warned they will pick up guns if the government remains silent towards their problem.
"You know how much money was taken from a kidnapped resident of Dara-e-Sof? Two-hundred thousand dollars. The Taliban will reject this, but it has happened in areas under their influence," said Mohammad Zahir Wahdat, former governor of Sar-e-Pul
...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone...
"There is a checkpoint in Dara-e-Sof and Ghulam Ali areas that take Afs200 ($2.5) from each vehicle. They are not fighting against the Taliban but against the people," said Abdullah Bayan, a resident of Samangan.
Residents said the highway has been insecure for the past two years. Security officials recently said efforts are underway to ensure the safety of the highway.
|
