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Afghan Taliban forcing truckers to pay extortion money, Peshawar council told
[DAWN] The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.district council was informed on Monday that the truckers bound for Afghanistan were being forced to pay Rs5,000 extortion per truck at the provincial city’s fruit and vegetable market in the name of the Afghan Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... . Speaking on a point of order, opposition leader Syed Zahir claimed that faceless myrmidons were collecting extortion money from the truckers transporting fruits and vegetables to Afghanistan in Peshawar and those not making that payment got threatening calls from someone based in Afghanistan. He said the truckers had no option but to pay extortion money. He distributed a receipt of Rs5,000 extortion payment to journalists and councillors. The receipt carrying the logo of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s Economic and Finance Commission had the truck’s number, the amount received, driver’s name and other details on it. When contacted, several truck drivers and fruit and vegetable traders confirmed the collection of extortion money. "I don’t know whether the people collecting extortion are the Afghan Taliban or not but it is true that money is being extorted from the people in the fruit and vegetable markets," a vegetable dealer told Dawn on condition of anonymity. He said the illegal activity had been going on for around two months. He dealer said two unidentified people riding a cycle of violence collected money from drivers as fruits or vegetables were loaded onto trucks. "If the motorcyclists miss trucks inside the fruit and vegetable markets, then they catch them on the Ring Road to force drivers to pay extortion money before going away," he said. Posted by: Fred 2018-12-06 |
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