Slain in prime of youth, 21 Levies men laid to rest

Families express grief, anger at lack of government support.

PESHAWAR:

The 21 Levies personnel, who were killed Saturday night by militants in Frontier Region (FR) Peshawar, were laid to rest in their ancestral villages on Sunday.

“Since morning, we have attended three funerals and have seen 11 men laid to rest,” said Malik Zafar, an elder of the Hassan Khel tribe, while talking to The Express Tribune.

“A tense calm prevails in the area… This is a great loss for our people,” he continued. According to Zafar, the slain men hailed from Hassan Khel Afridi tribe’s Zaka Khel, Miam Khel and Jani Khwar sub-clans. He added that all the men belonged to a group of 250 men recruited from the tribe two years earlier.

“This rifle, the bullets inside its magazine, the uniform, the shoes, even the socks are my own… But I fire my rifle for the government against militants,” said 22-year-old Mushtaq Ahmed, after laying his brother and fellow Levies force member Abdul Manaf to rest in FR Peshawar’s Jaba area.



Manaf, 20, and his cousin Amjad, 24, were among the dead. His brother lamented handing him his rifle.

“We have welcomed their (militants’) enmity by fighting for the government… They had left us alone before we started fighting,” he said.

Mushtaq said the incident had undermined support for the government and the political administration among his fellow tribesmen. He complained that instead of redoubling their own effort to recover the abducted Levies personnel, they threatened the tribesmen with severe consequences if the latter failed to recover them.

Mushtaq also decried the lack of government attention towards the Levies force.

“We are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea… While we wait for support from the government, the militants continue to slaughter us… Why should we fight and welcome their anger?”

Levies are neither provided the required arms and ammunition, nor their monthly salaries, Mushtaq continued.

“We are supposed to represent the government and the political administration, but are fighting this war on our own,” he asserted, adding that they would never do so in the future.

Mushtaq told The Express Tribune that his family and the families of the rest of the slain men were traumatised by the incident. He cited the example of his cousin Amjad’s wife, who still refuses to believe her husband, whom she married earlier this year, is dead.

“They (political administration) have failed us… I tender my resignation from the Levies force. Neither me, nor my family members will fight against militants.”

Meanwhile, a high-ranking political administration official told The Express Tribune that they will decide their future course of action once the men were laid to rest.

“It is time for a decisive action on the issue,” he said, adding that the government had several options open, including a military operation to clear the area of militants.

However, according to another tribal elder in the area, the move could prove devastating for the otherwise peaceful region.

FR Peshawar is a tribal territory adjacent to Nowshera and Darra Adam Khel. The area is governed by the Peshawar district coordination officer with the help of local tribal elders nominated by locals. Law and order in the area falls under the responsibility of the Levies force and Khasadar, who are recruited from the local tribes.

(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM UMER FAROOQ IN PESHAWAR)

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2012.