Few days ago, a friend shared on his Facebook timeline that he could not sleep whole night because of armed robbery in his house’s vicinity. Another shared that around 6 pm two individuals approached him and put two knives on his kidney and head, threatened him of doing anything and then stole whatever he had in his pockets. Another one said that on the very broad day light, in front of a very luxurious and crowded super market, a group of six individuals approached a man and threatened him to take his coat off and hand over to them while people were all around. These all happened within less than a week that also in a small corner of the Kabul city. And these were incidents I became aware, but the actual frequency of crimes is so high.
Putting all these incidents beside daily reports circulated on security emails, quite a gruesome picture is painted. Everyday a criminal incident is reported. Tire slashing is one of the most common one. The tires of targeted cars are slashed then followed to a specific area where security forces have loose presence. Then the vehicle is approached by thieves pretending to be taxi driver or passerby. When the drivers pull over to change the tire, they fall prey to thieves. There are several tactics that have become so common and people should be aware such as hiring taxi and then pointing guns to force them to get out of the car.
According to police security officials, a hundred criminal cases occurred in the Kabul city just within November last year most of which were murder and armed robbery. Back then Sayyed Gul Agha Hashimi the chief of anti-crime police force said that two hundred people were arrested related to criminal incidents. He added that most of the hundred registered criminal cases were murder and armed robbery. He counted the increase of population of the city and concerns over stoppage of international donations as the main reasons behind.
The key reasons behind robberies and criminal activities in the Kabul city are high unemployment rate and poverty. Billions of dollars spent to reconstruct the country but ended up to pockets of influential figures. According to reports released by domestic and international media, key beneficial and productive portions of the economy is manipulated by entrepreneurs who have used their influence in government to pull the rivals out of the economic battlefield. Such manipulation deal billions of dollars loss to civilians who just struggle to survive.
Nobody can reject that current economic condition of people are far better or even comparable to pre-2001 but. But meanwhile the poverty has remained so widespread. The double digit economic growth since 2001 has no meaning to lower and middle class of people. They rarely have benefited from such foreign-donation-run economic growth. Major part of the people still cut their daily food ration in order to send their children to school.
Additionally, Unemployment is not only prevalent among labors but also among high educated individuals who wander around for job after graduation. Only last year, it was a common expression among graduated boys that “girls can easily get a job while the story is not true for boys”. Because NGOs and public departments should try to consider the gender equality in terms of their recruitment. But the situation has deteriorated that those who have university degrees search over six months for job. The girls are also not exceptional anymore. Jobs have become so competitive that for any announced position in NGOs, over hundred people send their CVs.
Such high level of unemployment forces people to commit crimes for a living. Big cities, particularly will become ripe for criminal activities. Seemingly, the security forces can also be of no use to eradicate crimes unless people help them. People may get silenced receiving warnings from criminals. And also the prisons may get loaded with huge number of criminals but still crimes continue happening. That on one hand imposes huge unnecessary costs on public budget and on the other hand deprives the society from human resource it needs most
Additionally, in corrupt countries like Afghanistan security forces may also join hands with criminals. Indeed, in some countries, official have developed friendly relation with gangsters in order to use them for their personal interests. In many Asian countries, behind gangsters there are hands of political parties. They are refurbished, supported and even financed to grow stronger in order to create problem for rival groups on the due time. Afghanistan cannot be an exception.
Such an evil phenomenon certainly brings about miseries for residents as entrepreneurs and investors do not take interest to invest their money, fearing of being robbed. However, criminals in Kabul city are working as group, but generally linked to any powerful figure or any political party. Though they have individuals within the security establishment. In other words, security officials are also involved in some of the criminal activities like robberies. A friend who lost the plate number of his vehicle said that he found a police card from the crime scene. Later on when contacted police, he was told that he would receive the plate no of his vehicle without paying anything to robbers.
Therefore, officials should deal with the root causes of crimes – the high unemployment rate. Presently, nor Afghan private sectors neither government has the capacity to develop domestic or indigenous sectors. Hence, officials should develop closer relation with international community and neighboring countries in order to ensure that foreign support wouldn’t stop and the economy continues to grow.