Kabul moneychangers go on strike to demand security

KABUL (Pajhwok): Moneychangers and jewelers at a famous currency exchange market in Kabul on Sunday went on strike and staged a protest demonstration, asking the government to ensure their security.

“We don’t feel secure, our colleagues are often robbed and we want the government to address our security concerns otherwise we will shut our shops,” Khan Mohammad Baz, the Moneychangers Union head, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said one moneychanger of Shazada Market was recently deprived of one million US dollars in Sarobi district on the Kabul-Jalalabad highway recently when he wanted to shift the amount to Nangarhar province.

He claimed the amount had been snatched by three bodyguards of the Sarobi district police chief and the three men were currently in police custody in Kabul.

He warned that businessmen, moneychangers and investors would leave the country if the government did not address their security woes.

Mohammad Fawad, owner of Hamid Salehzada gold sale, expressed similar views, saying insecurity had discouraged businesses and traders.

He asked the government to shift the appellant court from their market because it posed a threat to them in form of a possible militant attack.

Ministry of Interior (MoI) spokesman Sedique Sediqui said the government was sparing no efforts to maintain security and arrest criminals.

He said police and other security agencies would whatever they could to accomplish private sector’s demands within available resources.

About the one million dollars robbery from a moneychanger in Sarobi, he said the case was being investigated by police and some arrests had been made in this regard.

nh/ma

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