Residents in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Friday raised deep concerns over what they described as a surging rate of criminal cases in the city, saying in some cases police know who the criminals are, but they are not cracking down on them.

In a new incident on Thursday, armed thieves injured an officer of the National Directorate of Security in PD3 of Kabul with bullets and then took his weapons and mobile phones.

“All the people are tired of a few gangs,” said Shahabuddin, a street counselor in PD3 of Kabul.

“Last night my uncle was seriously wounded with bullets and he was admitted to the hospital,” said Mohammad Siyar Nekzad, a relative of the NDS officer.

Meanwhile, armed thieves killed another young man in Surobi district of Kabul.

“He was killed on a Ramadan day. This is totally an act of oppression, this is injustice,” said Omid, a relative of the victim.

“He had done nothing bad to anyone. I don’t know why this has happened to him,” said Sher Shah, a relative of the victim.

Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Aryan said: “Our intelligence agencies and our security forces are struggling hard to detect the crimes. The criminals on the run will be arrested soon.”