[Pak Daily Times] Afghan security forces used batons on unruly customers scrambling to withdraw their savings on Wednesday from a branch of the graft-hit Kabulbank, the country's biggest private financial institution.
| It's been a while since there was a bank run in Afghanistan, I imagine, and the guards are out of practice. |
Kabulbank's troubles have threatened to add a financial crisis to Afghanistan's other woes, with military and civilian casualties at record levels as a Taliban-led insurgency grows and ahead of parliamentary elections on Sept. 18.
Officers from the National Security Directorate struggled to maintain control of up to 200 people outside one branch in the capital as desperate customers tried to take out money ahead of a three-day Muslim holiday.
The crisis developed after the company's top two directors resigned amid unproven media allegations of corruption.
| What about President Karzai's brother? How does he afford to live in that lovely Arabian place with functioning toilets and all? |
Corruption is a common complaint among ordinary Afghans and Washington fears graft is boosting the insurgency and complicating efforts to strengthen government control so foreign troops can hand over to Afghan security forces -- whose salaries are paid through Kabulbank.
The central bank on Monday ordered the assets of Kabulbank's former chairman Sher Khan Farnood and chief executive officer Khalilullah Fruzi to be frozen, together with those of several other shareholders and major borrowers, pending an inquiry. |