By Azada
Residents in west Kabul fear the Taliban are either unable or unwilling to provide security as the number of break-and-enters and the more brazen nature of the crimes are going unaddressed.
Masooma, 40, said the de facto authorities have ignored her pleas for an investigation and recourse since a violent home invasion at her west Kabul home on May 29 at 2.30am.
“We were all asleep. Suddenly, there was yelling and screaming from my children’s room. I thought maybe they were fighting. My husband and I came out of our room, and as we reached the hallway, a man with his face covered in a black mask grabbed my husband’s arm and said, ‘Don’t move!’
“I screamed, ‘Oh God, what’s happening?’ From behind, someone hit me on the arm with the butt of a gun and said, ‘Shut your mouth…’ They brought my husband and me to my children’s room, tied our hands behind our backs, and covered our eyes. To ensure we still couldn’t see them, they threw blankets over us.”
The men, armed with Kalashnikovs and knives, looted the entire house for at least an hour, Masooma said, speaking among themselves in Pashto.
“They were all armed, all dressed in black attire, with at least four of them searching and checking the household items while others were in the yard, ensuring their security,” she said.
All her family’s valuables were stolen including the money saved for the rent, jewellery, and mobile phones.
The thieves injured Masooma’s husband and two sons on their heads with blunt objects and threatened to kill them all.
Once they were done in Masooma’s house, they moved to the home of a relative, Amina, in the same compound.
Like Masooma, the thieves brazenly broke Amina’s window, not fearing who was home or who would wake.
“We were all asleep when suddenly I saw someone dressed entirely in black who had broken the window and entered the room,” Amina, 35, said.
“My mother screamed when she saw him, and the thief attacked her with a bayonet, injuring her. He then said aggressivly, ‘Don’t make noise, or I’ll kill you.’”
She says her mother was injured by the incident.
The thieves stole 17,000 afghanis (around US$250), which was all the savings that her brother, the sole breadwinner of their family, had painstakingly earned through his meagre salary at a Kabul swimming pool.
This story is not uncommon. More Kabul residents have voiced concerns over the rising tide of break-ins that the Taliban is struggling to contain.
Poverty and desperation could be a driver
Thirty-five-year-old Faramarz, a shopkeeper in Kabul’s Pul-e-Sorkh, said he believes the country’s economic situation is driving people to more desperate measures.
“Nothing has improved. Every day we witness thefts and robberies. All the young people, who are out of employment, are forced to steal and rob,” Faramarz said.
“The Taliban cannot ensure the security of the people. They only stand against the people using the power of weapons and whips. Those who previously used explosions are now in power but they cannot eliminate the threats now through explosions. Instead, they scare people with force. The Taliban have armed their members and are oppressing the people in a military and thieving manner, creating countless challenges.”
It’s a sentiment many in Kabul share, despite the Taliban saying it was taking steps to bring more security to the city.
In the second year after seizing power, the Taliban installed security cameras in the city, particularly in the western areas of Kabul and Khair Khana. Statistics provided by the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior in August-September 2023, the number of installed cameras in Kabul alone exceeded 60,000.
They said it was to ensure the security of the people.
But for Jawid, 29, he said despite the security cameras in almost every Kabul alley, theft has not decreased. He said this shows the Taliban’s weakness in ensuring the safety and property of the people.
Razia, 30, who lives in the Ziarat Quran area in western Kabul, said it seemed like thefts had increased in western Kabul recently with several neighbors’ homes being robbed.
“A few days ago, thieves entered our neighbor’s house and stole some of their money. The next day, the neighbor went to police station 13 to file a complaint, but they didn’t allow her to enter the station and asked her to come back with a male guardian,” Razia said.
She said some people are moving out of the area as they no longer feel safe and the police responses give them no assurance.
Some suspect the thieves and the Taliban are connected
Amina was shocked by how at ease the thieves were and the time they took thoroughly ransacking the house. They broke open boxes and even took a few relatively expensive prayer beads from among the prayer mats.
“After they searched the entire house and found nothing else to take, just before the call to morning prayer began, one of them asked my husband, ‘Where did you hide the rest of the money? Tell me, otherwise, I’ll kill you.’”
The thieves only left after hearing the call to prayer from the mosques, and Amina and Masooma’s ordeal was finally over.
Masooma and her family moved from Nawur in Ghazni province to Kabul last year so that their two sons could access better education. Her husband had recently opened a mobile phone shop in Kabul’s Pole Khoshk area. The thieves took at least 10 smartphones he had at their home that were intended for his business.
Masooma said no Taliban security agency is willing to address the incident. Amina similarly found her and her husband ignored when they contacted the local police station.
“They had stolen all the phones. My son had to go to the neighbor’s house to call the police station, but the Taliban only said, ‘It will be taken care of’.”
The Taliban police and a county representative went to the homes at eight o’clock a day later. Amina said they took photos of the broken windows and the ransacked houses, then left and haven’t returned since.
Mahdi*, 29, is a resident in West Kabul whose home was broken into on the night of May 8 at around midnight.
He said when he escaped the house and climbed onto the rooftop to call the Taliban night patrol, he received a chilling response.
He was told by the night patrol that they were not allowed to shoot or arrest the criminals and that he should contact the local police station.
Mahdi didn’t understand but he called the police all the same.
By the time they arrived, Mahdi and his neighbors had managed to scare off the thieves, who apparently left without stealing anything.
But instead of taking action to find out about the thieves, Mahdi said the arrival of the Taliban forces took a distressing turn that felt like an interrogation of him.
“They asked questions like, ‘What do you do that thieves came to your house? How much money do you have? ‘What did you do before?’”
According to a Kabul resident, who wished to remain anonymous, the neighborhood suspects the Taliban benefits from the thieves in some way.
“The Taliban forces are aligned with the thieves, otherwise, eight people couldn’t easily break into homes and steal despite the presence of security cameras,” the resident said.
“The Taliban can’t ensure the security of the people and is only able to use oppression and cruelty to force people into silence.”
Note: Some of the names are changed due to security reasons.
