KABUL – AFGHAN security forces used batons on unruly customers scrambling to withdraw their savings yesterday from a branch of the graft-hit Kabulbank, the country’s biggest private financial institution.
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 September 18th.
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.
Corruption is a common complaint among ordinary Afghans.
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 Kabulbanks 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.
Reuters witnesses saw armed officers of the National Security Directorate beat several people – including at least one policeman – among queues of angry customers gathered outside the only bank branch to open yesterday.