JAMRUD: Khassadar forces of the newly merged tribal districts of the province on Friday announced that they will not register any FIRs nor fill the daily police diary (Roznamchas) for any cases until the government accepts and fulfils their 22-point charter of demands.
This was decided during a high-level meeting of all Khassadar force officials from the erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata) in Jamrud on Friday.
During the meeting, the All Khassadar Force Association Chairman Said Jalal, Vice Chairman Mazhar Afridi and DSP Jahangir Afridi said that the government had promised to fulfil the 22-point charter of demands presented by the Khassadar and Levies forces of the newly-merged tribal districts (NMTDs). However, the government has yet to fulfil its promises, they lamented.
To make matters worse, they said that the government is taking steps contrary to their agreement.
Conceding that the government was moving to regularise the 28,000 erstwhile Khassadar and Levies personnel, they complained that this measure was being taken in a phase-wise manner.
The officials demanded that the provincial government complete the process in one fell swoop under a single notification.
“We demand that the provincial and the federal governments issue a single notification clearly accepting our 22 demands, point by point,” Jalal said.
He added that the government had also promised to restore the services of all sacked Khassadar and Levies personnel, but it has yet to come good on that promise.
Only those personnel should be left out of this process who were involved in any negative activity, he said.
The protesting Khassadar officials claimed that former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Naeem Khan had promised to set up a committee with senior police officers to sort out the issues of the Khassadar and Levies forces, including a one-time offer for a job in the provincial police force for a family member of Khassadar officials. However, after the change of guard at the Central Police Office in Peshawar, no progress has been made on that committee.
They (government) also violated this promise, lamented Vice-Chairman Mazhar, adding, that the Khassadars will stage protests for the fulfilment of their demands.
“We were also promised by former IGP Dr Naeem that all Khasaddar personnel will be deployed in their native tribal district, except for the district police officer (DPO), but now we have been asked to perform duties anywhere in the province,” DSP Janghir complained.
The Khassadar force officials said they will set up a protest camp at Bab-e-Khyber on March 8 unless their demands were fulfilled.
Meanwhile, officials of Levies forces from the merged tribal districts have distanced themselves from the protest announced by the Khassadars.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 29th, 2020.
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