Khassadars protest police deployment in Khyber

JAMRUD: The Khassadars and Levies force personnel on Saturday protested the deployment of the police in Khyber district.

A large number of Khassadars, Levies men, traders and elders from Bara and Jamrud participated in the protest. “There is no need for the deployment of police in erstwhile Fata,” Subedar Malik Mazhar Afridi said, adding the Khassadars and Levies personnel rendered matchless sacrifices in the fight against militancy. He said provincial Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government spokesman Ajmal Wazir and former IGP Salahuddin Mahsud had promised that the Khassadar and Levies force would be merged with the KP police. “We had given a 22-point agenda to the provincial government and it had agreed to implement it,” he recalled. He said hundreds of Khassadars and Levies personnel were martyred in erstwhile Fata during the years of militancy but the government did not extend the Shaheed package to compensate their families. “The protest will continue till our demands are met,” he threatened. Later, the ruling PTI’s Member National Assembly (MNA) from Bara, Iqbal Afridi assured the protesters that the issue would be discussed with the governor and chief minister. “We also want the Khassadars and Levies force to be merged with the police as they made sacrifices for peace,” the MNA said. He said the government was making efforts to provide all facilities to the people in the merged districts of former Fata.