The threat of militant violence is not new in the city of 3.5 million, which has never fully stabilised since the hardline Islamist Taliban regime was ousted in a U.S.-led war in 2001.
But a series of deadly raids on government employees and foreigners in the last month, after the exit of most NATO troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, has people worried about what the fighting season this year will bring and how effective the country's security forces will be.