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Kabul residents are concerned that crime is increasing as a group of armed thieves stabbed a Kabul resident to death and injured his wife Sunday evening in the Karte Naw area.
According to people in the Karte Naw neighbourhood, the armed men were wearing police uniforms.
A spate of reported armed robberies in the area have raised fears among residents that crime is on the rise, and notably it carried out by men in police and army uniforms.
However, the Kabul police chief in charge of Karte Naw (Zone 8) Mohammad Naeem Qazawi dismissed the report of an increase in robberies, although he admitted there have been thieves active in the area.
Qazawi added that Sunday's murder was not a robbery gone wrong but an incident triggered by personal differences.
"The man had a phone argument the afternoon before he was killed – they had a disagreement over some land," he told TOLOnews.
"If it wasn't related to personal hostility, then the thieves would have taken something from the house, but nothing was taken, and they stabbed to death the man who was the target," he added.
But residents say that at least five similar incidents have taken place in the area recently where armed thieves dressed as police enter homes and forcing residents to let them take their belongings.
"Groups of armed thieves – of five to ten or even 15 people – have entered houses, tied up the residents, and stolen their belongings. We have complained to the Zone 8 police station to stop it, but nothing has happened," a local resident told TOLOnews.
Another said, "They roam around in groups, and when they are questioned, they would say 'We are on police patrol.' It's not clear if they are the police or not, because they are in police uniforms."
However the police chief argued that part of the problem is that so many people own guns which can allow thieves to mortally threaten others and pose as security personnel.
"Theft is something normal, but the main problem for Kabul police in general is that most people have weapons in their houses," Qazawi said.
Armed theft in the Afghan capital is not new. Earlier this month six armed men entered a house in the same area of Karte Naw at 2:00 pm, and breaking the hand of a female resident while attempting to take her jewellery.