By ROD NORDLAND
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — The way Dr. Nisar Ahmed Barak sees it, he was
robbed twice — and both times by law enforcement authorities.
The New York Times
Kidnappers are more a threat than insurgents to many in Lashkar Gah.
It started in early July, on the last day of year-end exams for Dr.
Barak’s 12-year-old son, Esamullah, at a private school in Lashkar Gah,
the capital of Helmand Province in southwestern Afghanistan.
As an older relative prepared to drop Esamullah off at the school that
day, four men on foot suddenly pulled their car doors open, dragged the
relative out and jumped in with the boy, driving away as he screamed for
help.
Bystanders immediately raised the alarm, shouting that they thought
Esamullah had been kidnapped. But a group of police officers who were
only a block away ignored them.
Kidnappings have become endemic in many parts of Afghanistan, and even
in a war-weary place like Helmand Province, they are a bigger threat to
many than attacks by insurgents. All too often, the police end up being
involved, as confederates of the kidnappers.
Soon the ransom calls started. They were made over a portable satellite
telephone, not equipment to which most Afghans have access. They were
short as well, less than a minute to evade tracking, and featured the
voice of Dr. Barak’s son — but not live. Instead, the callers played a
recording of his voice.
“He was screaming that they were going to kill him,” Dr. Barak said.
“They wanted $2 million. I only had $6,000 in all.” The boy was said to
be held in a basement, chained to furniture.
Dr. Barak is not a particularly rich man, except by Afghan standards. He
makes $2,000 a month as a hospital director and surgeon at Bost
Hospital in Lashkar Gah; his wife is also a doctor there. He owns some
shop buildings in Lashkar Gah, and a house in Kabul.
He borrowed money from friends, colleagues, other doctors. He tried to
sell his properties, but the market was too low to make it worth it.
Instead, he borrowed from money changers, at loan-shark interest rates,
and he managed to negotiate with the kidnappers to settle for a $500,000
ransom, he said.
One day, investigating officers from the National Directorate of
Security, the Afghan intelligence service, said they had gotten a tip
that the kidnappers were hiding in a house just down the street from an
N.D.S. post.
Agents raided the house, taking along an Afghan National Police
commander, Samir Samiullah. The raid was a failure; no one was in the
house. Dr. Barak would later learn that the kidnappers had been tipped
off and spirited his son out of the house before the raid, disguised in a
woman’s burqa to avoid detection.
Dr. Barak paid the ransom, but agents tracked the kidnappers from the
pickup point and later arrested nine confederates. Three of them were
policemen — including the Afghan National Police commander, Mr.
Samiullah.
In an interview, the Helmand governor, Mohammad Naim Baluch, confirmed
the details of the kidnapping and arrests as related by Dr. Barak.
At least his son was safe — allowed to take his exams late, then sent to live with relatives in Kabul.
Then came another blow: The authorities said they found $175,000 of the
ransom money — seemingly good news, but months later, Dr. Barak is still
trying in vain to get it back from the N.D.S. That the kidnappers all
confessed and are in prison still has not helped.
“They’re all thieves,” Dr. Barak said. “Maybe they’re keeping the money
for themselves. They said they were waiting for the court to decide, but
what’s to decide? They all confessed.”
Mr. Baluch insisted that was not going to happen. “As soon as they
determine the money belongs to Dr. Barak, they will give it to him,” he
said. “No one would dare to put that money into his pocket.”
The doctor said he had decided to sell his property to repay creditors
who helped him raise the ransom. He is worried about one money-changer,
who charged him 5 percent monthly interest on a $100,000 loan, with the
rate doubling each month. It is already at 20 percent. “For 20 years
I’ve worked here — my wife and I, we never left,” he said. “And now
we’re just being tortured.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 31, 2013
An article on Oct. 18 about how kidnappings for ransom have become so endemic in Afghanistan that even in war-weary places they are proving a bigger threat than attacks by insurgents misidentified the law-enforcement agency that was served by a commander who was arrested in such a kidnapping. It was the Afghan National Police, not the Afghan Local Police.
Correction: October 31, 2013
An article on Oct. 18 about how kidnappings for ransom have become so endemic in Afghanistan that even in war-weary places they are proving a bigger threat than attacks by insurgents misidentified the law-enforcement agency that was served by a commander who was arrested in such a kidnapping. It was the Afghan National Police, not the Afghan Local Police.
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