PESHAWAR, June 10: The affected tenants of various villages in Charsadda  have appealed to NWFP governor to intervene and  order immediate removal of the police force from their villages set up on the instruction of SSP, Mardan to harass the tenants.

Speaking at a joint news conference here at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, Afzal Khamosh, secretary-general of the Communist Mazoor Kisan Party, Mir Alam Shah of the Pukhtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party, Gujjar Noor Mohammad of the MKP, Lal Rahman Babu of the PPP Mazdoor Kisan wing and Mohammad Tahir of the PPP (Sherpao) alleged that the SSP, Mardan, had turned these areas into a police  state by deploying four platoons of the Frontier Reserve Police  around their settlements.

They said five months ago, the SSP Mardan sent a heavy police contingent from Charsadda and adjoining areas into Ghazan Killay, Behram Dheri and Sigapur to take the possession of lands from the tenants.  When  the  police force riding  in  armoured  personnel carriers (APC) entered these areas, the tenants resisted them,  but the police teargassed them and arrested 79 villagers, including, two  Nazimeen, Deputy Nazim and councillors and took them  to  the Mandani police station, they added.

The police, they said, registered an FIR against the 79  people and implicated 200 others, escaped arrests by escaping. The police registered a case against them and were declared absconders under  various  criminal  sections, including the Anti-Terrorism Act.

They  said some of the alleged absconders, Fateh  Khan,  Sahib Shah  and Ahmed Shah, nominated in the FIR were of over 90  years age and they could not even walk on their own.

One  of the nominated persons, Sharif Khan of  Sarai  Sigapur had  died three years ago. Another man, Mirza Khan  of  the same  area,  had  died 15 years ago,  but  the  police  were harassing  their  relatives to produce them in  the  court,  they claimed.

They  alleged that the SSP, himself was a landlord and  he wanted  to evict tenants from his mother’s lands.  These  tenants had  been working for more than 50 years and they had been  given possession of lands under the agriculture reforms, they added.

The said:”The FRP are deployed to deal with emergency and they are paid daily allowances, but in Ghizan Killay, Behram Dheri and Sigapur,  four platoons are stationed around the villages,  which have become a permanent source of tension.”

They said District Charsadda Nazim had sent local Nazimeen  and councillors to the area to defuse the tension at  Ghizan Killay,  but the police arrested them and implicated them  in  the same case.

They also demanded of the NWFP Inspector General of the Police  to take  notice  of the abuse of the law and misuse  of  the  police force by a landlord-turned-police officer.