LANDI KOTAL: Khasadar personnel demonstrated in Bara and Jamrud on Saturday to press the government for their merger into the regular police force.

They also announced a boycott of the forthcoming anti-polio vaccination campaign in all the seven tribal districts.

Holding black flags and banners inscribed with slogans demanding their conversion into the police force, the protesting khasadars marched from Bab-i-Khyber in Jamrud up to the police checkpost at Karkhano market in Peshawar.

A similar protest walk was also organised in Bara. Anti-merger tribal elders also participated in these demonstrations.

The Khasadar officials, while speaking to their colleagues at the Karkhano market police station, said the federal and provincial governments were depriving them of their jobs at a time when a lasting peace had been restored in the militancy-hit areas.

Mazhar Khan, a Khasadar from Bara, accused the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister of backtracking on his promise of merging the Khasadar and Levies forces into the police.

Jahangir Afridi, another Khasadar official, said they would not allow regular KP police to assume official duties in tribal districts till the provincial government gave them a firm assurance about their future status.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2019