Unprecedented protest by police in Lakki enters third day

PESHAWAR: In an unprecedented protest by the personnel of a uniformed force, policemen in Lakki Marwat continued blocking the main Indus Highway for the third consecutive day on Wednesday against the everyday attacks and the silence of the government and their bosses.

In Bajaur, the policemen on Wednesday announced a boycott of the anti-polio campaign after the martyrdom of a cop. The cops said they would hold a grand meeting on Thursday to chalk out future strategy.

In Lakki Marwat, the protesting policemen set up camps at two more places in the district to block the Indus Highway. Many policemen in the district are not performing duty and have joined the protest camps.

Started on Monday, the sit-in continued on Wednesday. Thousands of passengers travelling between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, Balochistan remained stranded for hours after which they took the Dera Ismail Khan Motorway to reach their destinations.

A large number of policemen in Lakki Marwat had taken to the streets against the innumerable attacks and the martyrdom of their colleagues in recent days. They were also demanding handing over complete control of security of the district to police, asking for withdrawal of other forces.

Apart from all the top officials of the Bannu region, Capital City Police Officer, Peshawar, Qasim Ali and other senior cops from the provincial capital held talks with the protesting policemen asking to end their sit-in. The officials assured them that their grievances would be addressed.

The protesting cops refused to comply with the orders of the bosses and continued their protest camp. Some of them said they are ready to resign but will not withdraw their demands.

In January last year, a number of KP policemen staged protests against the martyrdom of over 86 colleagues in a bomb attack at the mosque of the Peshawar Police Lines.However, this is for the first time in the country that personnel of a uniformed force have staged sit-in and blocked a main interprovincial highway for three consecutive days. Also, they have turned down many requests from bosses to end the sit-in.

The protesters said many policemen had been kidnapped, ambushed and their houses and families attacked in Lakki Marwat and other towns of Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan division over the last few years.

The protest started on Monday when a large number of policemen in civvies while carrying their official weapons staged a demonstration. They were angry over the silence of government and senior officials over the frequent attacks on the force.

More cops from the adjacent districts as well as locals later joined the protest to assure their support. Senior political leaders also issued statements in favour of the policemen, terming their protest as something extraordinary and unprecedented.

On Wednesday, Bajaur police officials announced to hold a meeting on Thursday morning while they wouldn’t perform security duty with anti-polio teams. They demanded the arrest of the killers of a colleague who was martyred while protecting a polio team in Bajaur earlier in the day.