Afghan police confiscate illicit uniforms used by Taliban in attacks
Image via WikipediaThe police on Saturday ratcheted up enforcement on stores and tailor shops that illegally make and sell military and police uniforms after a string of attacks by insurgents dressed as Afghan service members that have cast suspicion on the country’s security forces.Why did it take them so long. We figured this out already in Iraq early and came up with uniforms that could not be duplicated. Those in the market who have been selling this contraband are responsible for helping the enemy kill people and they should be treated as traitors if they are caught doing it again. In the meantime they should be questioned about who they have been selling the uniforms to.
In the Kohan Froshi market, a sprawling open-air bazaar in downtown Kabul, teams of police officers made morning raids through the stalls, confiscating hundreds of uniforms, boots, badges, insignia and other military and police items, said Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, the police chief of Kabul Province.
In addition to confiscating uniforms and equipment, the police issued stern warnings to shop owners, telling them that if they were caught again, they would face arrest.
“We warned the people not to sell military uniforms and boots,” General Salangi said. Similar crackdowns were under way or about to start in the volatile southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, officials there said.
A thriving trade in military clothing has existed for years. There is ample supply; soldiers and police officers often sell their extra uniforms to supplement their relatively low pay, and deserters also try to cash in. The demand is also high: pieces of contraband uniforms have become something of a fashion statement in a country that has lived with war and violence for decades.
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The Afghan military and police need to start having "junk on the bunk" inspections to make sure that police and soldiers are not selling their gear. If they are missing uniforms there should be consequences.
This story says that an attacker wearing a Sargent Major's uniform was shot before he could trip the human bomb he was wearing. The man is believed to have flown in from London for the operation.
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