KEY POINTS:
Abad Khan has spent much of his life on Afghanistan's roads, driving a truck through some of the most beautiful and hostile terrain in the world.
The work is hard but it gives the 30-year-old and his colleagues a view of the country rarely seen or heard about, and it is a view they are increasingly finding they do not like.
Deteriorating security across Afghanistan means the country's roads are now rife with bandits, illegal checkpoints and corrupt officials.
"We pay all our bribes to criminals and they are criminals who wear police uniforms," Khan said. "In the daytime they have smart police uniforms, then in the night they become Taleban and chop drivers' noses and ears off. No real Taleban do this."
Truck drivers are an important barometer of the security situation in Afghanistan, as their work means they experience life across the country.
When the Taleban first rose to power in the mid-1990s, it was in part a response to the rampant lawlessness on Afghanistan's roads, which had been dominated by the illegal checkpoints of warlords. Travelling anywhere was a gamble, and leading figures in the transport industry supported Mullah Mohammed Omar's fundamentalists because they longed for security.
According to today's truck drivers, history is in danger of repeating itself.
"The difference between when the Taleban were in government and now is the same as the difference between land and sky," 61-year-old Haji Mohammed Amin said. "Now we are sick of life and if we are sick of life, how can we enjoy it? What is the meaning of life for us? At that time it had meaning, now it is nothing."
Violence has increased this spring, and colleagues of Khan and Amin have been among the victims.
On Monday, a trucker was injured in Kandahar by an improvised explosive device. During March there were a series of deadly attacks on Afghans transporting goods for foreign troops. In one incident, the decapitated body of a trucker was found dumped in the southern province of Zabul. And this month at least three drivers had their noses and ears cut off this month in the eastern province of Nuristan.
While officials say attacks such as these are the work of the Taleban, the truckers often refuse to believe the insurgents are responsible. Even when they do blame them, they still insist the police are a bigger threat.
Truckers say bribes are usually between 50 afghanis ($1.40) to 3000 afghanis ($83.30) and that policemen beat the drivers, vandalise their vehicles and siphon off their fuel.
Khan and Amin were sitting with some colleagues waiting to eat lunch by Jalalabad Road in Kabul, the scene of a number of suicide bombings. The men gathered there hated and feared the police. One, called Rahullah, described how he paid bribes to three different policemen on a single night. "It's my dream that ultimately the Government will be run by the Taleban, but we will still get financial support from the Americans," the-father of five said.
Pakistan-based truckers began a strike last month over the increased taxes and roadside extortion. Anwar Ali, a 23-year-old Pakistani, was one of those intending to take part.
He had seen trucks set on fire by insurgents and did not want to take any chances. But the militants were the least of his worries.
"Forget about the Taleban, our biggest problems are with the police," Ali said. As Asif Hemat, a 27-year-old trucker, added: "This is the worst time I have ever experienced in my life."
- INDEPENDENT
