In response to citizens’ vehement protestations against the scourge of banditry and the brazen plundering of their belongings by armed assailants in Kabul and the northern provinces, authoritative sources have apprised RASC News Agency of the apprehension of Mullah Qiyam, erstwhile intelligence chief in the police command of Jowzjan province and a prominent Taliban military commander. He stands accused of banditry, house theft, and the systematic robbery of travelers traversing the highway interlinking the northern provinces. Disclosures from sources unveil that Mullah Qiyam, acting in his capacity as a Taliban intelligence official, was deeply embroiled in the malevolent pursuits of banditry and the illicit confiscation of travelers’ possessions along the Jowzjan-Mazar highway and other northern provinces for an extended duration. The Taliban, spurred by numerous plaintive grievances from travelers, took him into custody along with eleven armed compatriots.
Reports underscore the complicity of Mullah Qiyam and his subordinates in the nefarious activities of highway banditry and the wholesale theft of travelers’ belongings in the northern territories, including the audacious misdeed of plundering cargo from freight vehicles after their interception. Earlier communiques from RASC News Agency had forewarned of Taliban members perpetrating at least two nocturnal residential burglaries in Takhar province within the preceding week. Shockingly, in one instance, victims were identified and subsequently subjected to decapitation.
Concurrently with the Taliban’s unparalleled stranglehold on Afghanistan, precipitating an exacerbation of poverty and unemployment, the upswing in armed robberies and criminal homicides has elicited widespread consternation. Criticism of the Taliban has burgeoned, with individuals contending that, given the prevailing circumstances, the only armed faction is the Taliban itself, having systematically disarmed the populace, particularly in urban locales. Consequently, a prevailing belief posits that instances of armed robberies and criminal homicides are perpetrated by specific elements within the Taliban group. In multiple instances, citizens have borne witness to the involvement of Taliban members in acts of armed robbery. Conversely, the Taliban’s inherent inadequacy in ensuring security in both urban and rural domains has intensified public apprehension. Their illicit procurement and employment of weaponry, coupled with tacit support from select authorities within the group for delinquent elements, portend the complicity of Taliban authorities in an array of criminal activities, spanning theft, kidnapping, and the outright looting of citizens’ property.
Earlier intelligence from Parwan province indicated the perpetration of a heist by an armed cohort of seven individuals, targeting the possessions of seven passenger vehicles on the Kabul-North highway. According to informed sources, armed marauders affiliated with Taliban intelligence forces, armed with sophisticated weaponry, had instituted a checkpoint where they conducted systematic searches of passengers before proceeding to perpetrate acts of robbery. Concurrently, local Taliban authorities in Takhar have publicly acknowledged the detention of two of their own members by their intelligence unit, citing charges of armed robberies and banditry against travelers on the Takhar-Kabul highway. Sources reveal the identities of these two implicated Taliban members, affiliated with Qari Zulmi “Weqas,” a senior commander in Takhar province, as “Mohammad Azam” and “Abdullah.”
Lamentably, certain Taliban commanders and members are veering towards a path of banditry, victimizing the denizens of Kabul and the country’s provinces. The group, ostensibly committed to enforcing the tenets of “Sharia,” has executed numerous individuals on charges of theft in public spaces. Remarkably, punitive measures against their own ranks for moral corruption, theft, and widespread banditry remain conspicuously absent, with the inclination towards acquittal. Citizens assert that the Taliban, ostensibly guided by “Islamic Sharia,” adopt a duplicitous stance, overlooking myriad transgressions committed by their own members.
