KOHAT: The district police officer of Kohat has been accused of not abiding by an order of the home department to leave at least 75 Levies personnel at the disposal of the assistant commissioner of tribal Darra Adamkhel subdivision for a year now.

Azam Khan, a senior official of the tribal subdivision, told Dawn that the home department had decided that 75 Levies men out of the 386 should be retained by the tribal administration for patrolling and other activities, but the DPO had taken over all of them.

He said there were only 22 Levies men working in Darra Adamkhel and the administration had no staff for proper beat duties. He said the DPO sometimes transferred the Levies staff to the tribal subdivision, but then withdrew them in violation of the orders of the home department. The official said the Levies staff was performing duties with the MPs, deputy commissioner, additional assistant commissioner etc.

Moreover, Azam Khan alleged that the DPO had illegally removed a Levies subedar major and appointed a corrupt man on the post. Similarly, he said the police had failed to control drug trade and arrest the proclaimed offenders roaming in the area because the police were not ready to shift to the allotted place of Eagle Fort in Darra and running the affairs from the KDA police station in Kohat.

Azam Khan said they had transferred more than 100 criminal cases as per the government directives to the civil courts, but no headway was being made in the trials. He explained that the police did not register proper FIRs of the cases and depute prosecution officers to plead them in the courts, thus causing unusual delay in decisions.

He said Darra police in-charge, DSP Sanobar Khan rarely visited the tribal subdivision.

The official said a full-time assistant superintendent of police was also awaited, adding additional charge of the post had been given to an officer stationed in Kohat.

When contacted, the DPO told Dawn that he had through a proper notification put 148 Levies men at the disposal of the assistant commissioner and the deputy commissioner.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2019