RASC News Agency: In yet another chilling incident that highlights the growing anarchy in southern Afghanistan, a young man was shot in broad daylight at approximately 12:30 p.m. on Friday after resisting a group of armed robbers in the heart of Police District 9, Kandahar city. Despite his efforts to defend himself, the young man sustained critical injuries. The perpetrators, however, fled the scene effortlessly facing no resistance, no pursuit, and no consequences. This attack is merely one among a rising tide of armed robberies that have swept across Kandahar in recent weeks. Local residents and sources report dozens of such assaults in neighborhoods once considered relatively secure. Armed gangs now brazenly stop vehicles and pedestrians, confiscate motorcycles at gunpoint, and escape unhindered often under the very noses of the Taliban security forces.
Kandahar residents, increasingly paralyzed by fear, speak of a city that has descended into lawlessness. “Robberies in broad daylight, even in the city center, have become disturbingly routine,” said one local shopkeeper who asked to remain anonymous. “We no longer feel safe anywhere not in our homes, not on the streets, not even at our workplaces or markets. The city is slipping out of control.” While the Taliban continues to claim responsibility for security and law enforcement, the ground reality suggests otherwise. Testimonies gathered by RASC News reveal a deeply troubling pattern: not only have the Taliban failed to contain the surge in criminal violence, but there is mounting evidence that elements within their own ranks are directly involved in the crimes. Witnesses describe robbers flashing Taliban-issued weapon permits and escaping the scenes of their crimes in Taliban security vehicles tools of state authority turned instruments of organized theft.
Far from being protectors of public order, the Taliban regime now stands accused of complicity in the very crimes they were supposed to eliminate. Kandahar residents who have dared to file complaints describe a broken system one where their pleas for justice are routinely ignored, and where Taliban security personnel frequently refuse to follow up on cases. “We have submitted complaints multiple times,” a resident told RASC News, “but there’s no accountability. Our voices vanish into silence. The very people entrusted with our security have abandoned us.” As armed criminals assert growing control over Kandahar’s streets, the city teeters on the brink of total societal collapse. Public order has eroded to the point where criminal gangs now act with impunity, free from fear of arrest or reprisal. The Taliban’s inability or unwillingness to respond has effectively granted these groups a license to terrorize.
What is unfolding in Kandahar is not merely a security failure. It is the unraveling of a city betrayed by those who seized power under the promise of law, order, and Islamic justice. Instead, the Taliban’s rule has ushered in a dark age of fear, criminality, and abandonment. The residents of Kandahar now endure a daily reality where predators roam freely and the self-declared “Islamic Emirate” looks the other way, or worse, pockets the spoils.
