November 27, 2001	Tuesday	Ramazan 11, 1422

JALALABAD, Nov 26: From improvised road tolls to the shakedown of shopkeepers, extortion is on the rise across Afghanistan as Taliban rule crumbles.

Opium is also being cultivated again, villagers say. The Taliban had succeeded in ridding the roads of armed checkpoints that were a lucrative source of cash for warlords and bandits.

But now that the militia is no more in control, some ordinary Afghans fear a return to the lawlessness that reigned earlier when feuding Mujahideen factions battled for power and money.

Several checkpoints, or “patak”, have already been set up by armed men along the road linking Kabul with Jalalabad and Torkham at the Khyber Pass border with Pakistan.

It was on the bumpy, dusty, mountain-ringed highway that four journalists, including two from Reuters, were held up and killed by unidentified gunmen last week.

Regular drivers on the route say they are not being harassed too badly for now by self-styled “guardians of the road” because of Ramazan. But they fear the number of extortion points will mushroom once the holy month ends.

“They have not established themselves properly yet,” one driver said. “But after Ramadan, once they stretch themselves all over the road, we’re worried that these checkpoints will increase and it could be chaos like in the old days,” he said.

PAY UP OR PACK UP: A more blatant extortion point is at Torkham, a Wild West town where Afghans leaving or entering their country with any belongings are usually made to hand over money to a group of men. The sums are small, but for Torkham shopkeepers the shakedown involves serious money.

In the town’s once bustling spare-parts market, most shops have closed because local commanders have told the owners either to pay nearly 1,800 dollars for the land they occupy or to pack up and go.

“All these shops have remained shut since the Taliban escaped,” said one local, who called the demands a clear case of extortion.

“There’s some element of rivalry among the various groups controlling Torkham and the money they’re demanding from the shop owners is just a source of income for them,” he said.

Back in Jalalabad, a checkpoint demanding a “transport toll” from passing car drivers could just be a taste of things to come.

One driver said the harassment was by no means as bad as it was at the height of Afghanistan’s civil war in the 1990s.

“But we use this road more than any one and what we see gives us the impression that it will turn like before,” he said. “The people who call themselves the guardians of the road will not give up their addiction.”—Reuters