Militia’s warning: ‘We’ll join Taliban if govt doesn’t want us’

Head of militia says if the govt doesn't accept their demands within two days, it should let them join the Taliban.

PESHAWAR: The head of the anti-Taliban militia targeted in Wednesday’s suicide bombing at a funeral in Adezai has warned that its volunteers will be forced to join the Taliban if it does not get material and financial support from the government within two days. “Either the government accepts our demands within two days or they should let us join the Taliban, ” Haji Dilawar Khan, who leads the Qaumi Amn Lashkar, told reporters here.

“We are no longer capable of fighting them alone. We need the government’s help.” Khan had made a similar warning last week, when he told a press conference that the government was not providing the militia promised ammunition and rations. He said the government’s apathy was demonstrated the day after his press conference, when Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Bashir Bilour had reportedly told the media that the militias were no longer useful.

After Khan spoke to reporters on Wednesday, Bilour released a press statement pledging that the government would negotiate the matter with the lashkar soon.

Adezai village is close to Peshawar, not far from the tribally administered regions that border Afghanistan where the Taliban are at their strongest. The area is home to several tribal lashkars that were formed with government backing to resist the Taliban.

Khan said despite a lack of support from the government, his militia had managed to wrest Matani from Taliban control.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2011.