PESHAWAR, June 10: The Awami National Party, Khyber Agency, while expressing concern over the unrestricted movement of the militia forces and long spells of unannounced loadshedding and low power voltage in tehsil Bara, Khyber agency, has demanded of the government to mitigate the sufferings of the tribesmen.

Speaking at a press conference, here on Tuesday, the ANP’s president of tehsil Bara, Haji Rasool Khan, said the poor tribesmen faced numerous problems, because of the unscheduled loadshedding and low electricity voltage in the area.

“The people have been experiencing 18 hours of loadshedding a day, which has brought the daily routine of the people to almost at a standstill. The children and the aged people are the worst hit, who are falling victims to many diseases,” he deplored.

According to him, the prolonged spells of loadshedding has also caused severe scarcity of water and the people have to bring the commodity from the distant places in the simmering heat for their domestic use.

The loadshedding had also badly affected the agricultural produce of the area and crops and orchards are at the verge of disaster. Most of the electric appliances have gone out of order, because of power fluctuations.

He said that the militia force had been deployed on streets, hujra (men guest houses) and in front of the houses of the tribesmen in the name of anti-smuggling campaign in the agency.

The presence of these forces, he said had been hindering the movement of their women, because they cannot come out of their houses due to the existence of the forces everywhere. The women in tribal areas, he said were supposed to work in fields and pitch water for their use, but in the presence of militia, they couldn’t go outside of their homes.

The forces, he alleged had been deployed on only one route on which the in charge was abetting the smugglers. The in charge of the forces, he said in collaboration with a former MNA, was providing safe passage to 50 trucks loaded with smuggled goods every day which are being passed through the designated route.

He demanded of the NWFP Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah to improve the situation in the area.