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Since the campaign against insecurity launched on social networks, police patrols have been stepped up. For what result? (illustration photo) REUTERS / Mohammad Ismail

Afghan netizens have been reporting rampant crime in the capital for a week, using the hashtag #KabulIsNotSafe (Kabul is not safe).

From our correspondent in Kabul,

It is the murder of a young man who is at the origin of this awareness campaign launched by a group of civil society activists.

On January 4, Ali Sina was killed on a street near his home. He was 20 years old and studying at the American University of Kabul while working to pay for his studies. He then returned home to a working-class district of the Afghan capital. It was early evening, night had fallen. Men attacked him and stole his cell phone and wallet. When they tried to take his computer from him, he struggled and it was there that he was stabbed to death. This is what his brother who lived with him said.

A symbol of crime

Ali has become the symbol of the crime that exploded in Kabul and of the authorities' incompetence to ensure the safety of the population. Her photo went viral on Twitter. We see him, a red and white polo shirt leaning on his computer.

In complete loss of words for the loss of this young dynamic man who was robbed and then stabbed to death the previous day in Kabul. #KabulIsNotSafe pic.twitter.com/Eh63wMZvHG

Ali Wanderlust (@ASDoosti) January 5, 2020

" We demand justice for Ali and we want to denounce the crimes committed every day in the capital, " said his colleague Abdul Malik Hamdard, one of the instigators of this campaign. All also denounce the government's silence on this permanent insecurity.

Abdul Malik Hamdard's mission, along with other Internet users, is to post daily information on the attacks committed in the capital by gangs organized to alert the public authorities and testify.

Reinforcement of patrols

And this campaign is starting to bear fruit. In any case, it made the Interior Ministry react: a week ago, police patrols were stepped up. More than 300 police officers were deployed as reinforcements to support their colleagues already positioned at roadblocks across the city to check the cars in circulation. Concretely, these policemen stop the vehicles and check the identity of the occupants.

But will it be enough? Many Internet users wonder. The Afghan Interior Ministry has given itself three months to end organized crime. And he communicates a lot about the arrests that have taken place in the past two weeks.

On social networks, Kabulians tell them how they had to change their habits. They never come home after dark, they change their itinerary, they constantly check that no one is following them. " Crime has become a more serious problem than terrorism for the people of Kabul, " said a local elected official in the Afghan capital.