WANA: More than 1,400 personnel of the Khasadar Force boycotted duty and abandoned their checkposts in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan tribal district, to protest non-payment of salaries for the last 10 months.

The personnel of Levies Force, however, continued to man the checkposts after the khasadars boycotted the duty.

Dil Nawaz, the additional deputy commissioner of South Waziristan tribal district, told this correspondent that the salaries of khasadars would be released within a few days.

He said that he would try to convince the protesting personnel of Khasadar Force to end the protest and take up their duty immediately.

The deputy commissioner said that many of the old personnel of the Khasadar Force had passed away. He said that the computerisation of the method of payment of salaries to the personnel of Khasadar Force had created a glitch in the system. He said that efforts were being made to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

On the other hand, the representatives of Khasadar Force personnel including Omar Khan Wazir, Rasool Jan Wazir and Salam Wazir told journalists that their families were passing through hard times as they had not received salaries for the last 10 months. They said that they were compelled to take out their children from schools owing to financial difficulties.

They said the protesting personnel would continue to boycott duty till they were paid salaries.

It is to the mentioned here that the Khasadar Force personnel have also boycotted the polio immunisation drive over the salary issue. Owing to the strike, at least 50,000 children remained deprived of polio vaccination in the tribal district.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2019