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KABUL: Tens of police officers were fired from their jobs after truck drivers went on strike in protest of misbehavior and extortion by police in the Kabul-Kandahar-Herat highway, ministry of interior said on Saturday.
Interior Minister, Massoud Andarabi, wrote on Twitter that 135 officers serving on the highways were fired, while another 51 who were serving on the Kabul entry roads also lost their jobs.
Drivers went on job strike last week in Kandahar province in the south to protest extortion and mistreatment by police. The strike immediately affected prices of foodstuff and other essentials in Kabul and became a matter of concern for the residents of the capital.
Andarabi, said that the dismissal happened after complaints made by the drivers.
He promised to seriously investigate police extortion from drivers in the highways, saying that his deputy was assigned to find out the problems.
The minister also met with the representatives of protesting drivers, saying that provincial police chiefs were ordered to assess the highway problems as their priorities.
Kabul residents are suffering increasing of essential prices particularly foodstuff and fuel. The prices jumped more after a vast fire incident burned hundreds of trucks in the Islam Qala prot on the Iranian border last week.
