PESHAWAR, Dec 7: The people from the Kurram Agency in the Fata area on Sunday criticized the Levies, accusing them of brutalitizing tribesmen.

In a statement, issued by the All-Fata Supreme Council, Kurram Agency, tribesmen announced their intentions to submit a detailed report to the United Nations about human rights violations perpetrated in the name of the Frontier Crimes Regulations in the tribal areas.

President of the AFSC Saif Ali Haideri urged the government to release tribesmen arrested during a rally held to protest against the murder of a taxi driver, Murtaza Hussain, killed near a Levies check-post on July 28.

The driver was killed after he did not respond to Levies’ signal to stop and drove past the check-post. The Levies had opened indiscriminate fire, killing the driver on the spot. Residents protested against the unlawful and brutal action by the Levies, demanding immediate action against the killers.

The AFSC president said that instead of taking any legal action against the people responsible for the murder, the political authorities, in connivance with tribal elders, had lodged cases against protesters, arresting 200 of them.

The Home and Tribal Affairs Department, he said, had signed a ready-made decision drafted by the four tribal Maliks against a sum of Rs200,000. The NWFP home secretary, he said, had fined them amounts ranging between Rs25,000 and Rs1,000,000 without initiating any inquiry into the incident, he added.

The government, he said, had imposed fines amounting to Rs13,000,000 under various sections of the FCR.

Accusing political authorities of pursuing a harsh line against the tribesmen, he said it might create more unrest in the area.

Urging the government for immediate withdrawal of cases, he said that the arrested tribesmen should be freed without any delay otherwise they (the tribesmen) would be forced to organise protest rallies and sit-ins against the political authorities in Peshawar and outside parliament in Islamabad.