Nangarhar fuel stations’ owners warn to shut businesses

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Owners of fuel stations in eastern Nangarhar province say they are forced by threats from armed men to shut their business or remove their capital and invest outside the country.

They say they are asked for money from unknown sources, targeted with bombs and threatened on a daily basis while security organs do nothing to protect them.

They say a fuel station in Surkhrod district of Nangarhar was attacked with an explosion on Monday night that caused hundreds of thousands of afghanis loss to its owner.

Fuel Station Owners Union in Nangarhar also said that they had repeatedly discussed the problem with Nangarhar intelligence agency, deputy governor and the governor, but it did not yield any results.

Fuel Station Owners Union members today gathered to protest last night’s attack on a fuel station in Surkhrod district and warned to shut their businesses and transfer their capital outside of the country if the situation did not improve.

Kheyal Mohammad, deputy head of the union, said that fuel pump owners were threatened on phone from unknown numbers on a daily basis and they were asked for money and threatened of kidnapping and bombing.

These cases have increased since last one month during which three pumps of a person were bombed that caused hundreds of thousands of US dollars in loss, he said.

He said he has shared the problem with Nangarhar governor and intelligence agency, but it did not help as a pump was blown up with bombs that also caused fire last night.

Faiz Mohammad, who operates multiple fuel stations, said that three of his pumps were targeted with bombs in the last one month and the last one was attacked on Monday night.

He said that he received phone calls form unidentified numbers on a daily basis and asked him for money, but he refused to pay the money and that was the reason he suffered.

Mohammad said he has shared the phone numbers from which he received calls with intelligence officials, but no action was so far taken. He added that he would be obliged to shut his businesses or withdraw investment.

However, Nangarhar security officials say that pump owners had not shared any complaints with them earlier, but now they received the complaints and would take action on the regard.

Farid Khan, provincial police spokesman said, “Enemies do such activities under the name of Daesh (ISIS) and Taliban, we will try to arrest these people and take them to justice.”

Pump owners are not the only ones who receive daily threats for ransom, Nangarhar doctors were also threated the same way for months.

After weeks long protests by the doctors, the threats were finally responded by security officials.

Mds/ma