MARDAN, May 24: NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti has said that the provincial government had allocated Rs4 billion to put police on modern lines.

“The police would be armed with latest weapons to combat terrorism and crimes in the province,” the chief minister said while addressing a public gathering at his Camp Office, opened at the Circuit House Mardan on Saturday. Over Rs15 million was reportedly spent on its renovated.

Mr Hoti said the province was facing terrorism, extremism and militancy but the ANP-led coalition government had successfully staged talks with militants at Malakand and Swat as a result normalcy was returning to the region.

Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) leader Sufi Mohammad was kept in jail by the previous government, he said, but the ANP-led government took a bold step and set him free. Peace was being established in Swat, he added.

Without peace, he said, progress and development was impossible as investors refused to invest in the region. He said innocent people were killed ruthlessly under a ‘conspiracy’ but now the people should rise against it.

He asked the federal government to come forward to take solid steps for establishing peace in the tribal and settled areas of the Frontier. Development works in Mardan would be accelerated, he said and promised that road and university projects would be initiated in the district.

PROTEST: The Tanzeem Ahli Sunnat Wal Jammat (TASWJ) and Jamiat Ulem-i-Pakistan (JUP) staged protest processions against the killing of relatives of an MNA from Landi Kotal.