‘Aqina road closure badly affects businesses’

MAIMANA (Pajhwok): Chamber of commerce and industry officials say many trade activities and facilities have been closed in Faryab province as a result of an ongoing protest against detention of Nizamuddin Qaisari.

Mohammad Rahim Mesgar, head of chamber of commerce and industry for Andkhoi district of Faryab, told Pajhwok Afghan News that businesses of 500 traders had been affected and 33 facilities closed as a result of the ongoing protests in Faryab.

More than 2,500 workers were deprived of their daily income besides sending prices of fuel and food items soaring by closure of the Aqina road, he said.

Mesgar said around 150 trucks loaded with commercial goods would enter the country through Aqina port on a daily basis but now some traders were trying to leave the port and use other ports for importing goods.

He added the Aqina port might lose its credibility and even collapse if the problem between the government and the protestors remained unresolved.

An official of Aqina port customs, who wished to go unnamed, said more than 120 cargo trucks would enter the country through the port on a daily basis, adding $750,000 to $800,000 to the government’s revenue.

On the other hand, Faryab governor Dr. Naqibullah Faiq said that closure of Aqina route not only affected traders and people but also led to increase in prices of essential items and petroleum.

He said if the current situation continued, it would affect Afghans in general and Turkmenistan might attempt to close Aqina port.

Faiq said they had shared demands of the protestors with the government and discussions were currently underway for finding a solution to the problem as soon as possible.

Massoud Ahmad Massoud, deputy head of Junbish-i-Milli Afghanistan, who also organized protests in Aqina port, said they would reopen the route whenever the government accepted their demands.

He said the government should pave the ground for the return of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and release Nizamuddin Qaisari without any conditions.

He warned they would not open the road even if killed until the government accepted their demands.

Dostum quietly left Kabul for Turkey last year in May after he was accused of rape and torture by a political rival Ahmad Ischi. Dostum has since been living in exile in Turkey.

Qaisari, Dostum’s representative for uprising groups in Faryab, and his bodyguards were captured by the Afghan commando forces on July 2, from Maimana, the capital of northwestern Faryab province and later shifted him to Kabul for investigations.

But a number of people in Faryab have since been staging protests and demanding the release of Qaisari.

Three supporters of Qaisari were killed and five others injured after their protest turned violent. Some reports said Afghan forces had mistreated Qaisari’s bodyguards.

mds/ma

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