TIMERGARA, May 23 The Adenzai qaumi jirga has urged the district and provincial governments to make police posts functional in different parts of the violence-hit Adenzai area of Lower Dir.

Talking to journalists here on Saturday, jirga head and former provincial minister Bakht Baidar Khan, who recently returned from the UAE, said the Taliban had left Asbanr and now the area had been peaceful for the last few days.

He said police posts in Asbanr, Kharkanai, Gul Abad, Gora Gat Ramora and Katkala had been vacated before the operation was launched in the area. However, he said, the posts had not been reactivated after the operation and there were no police personnel in the area.

“Criminals can exploit the situation and disturb the peaceful environment again if the police force did not resume its duties in the area,” Mr Baidar opined.

The district nazim, he said, had announced some days ago that all banks in the area would be reopened and police would resume duties in parts of the district, but it had not been done.

He said the jirga on Saturday tried to have a meeting with the local military commander in Chakdarra, but he was in some other area and they were unable to meet him.

The jirga, he said, demanded that the district and provincial governments should send personnel to the police posts situated in different parts of Adenzai. The jirga members and people, he added, would extend full cooperation to the police force in maintaining law and order situation in the area.

CURFEW RELAXED Law-enforcement agencies relaxed the curfew on Saturday for three hours in Chakdarra and other parts of the district.

Stranded transporters and the Maidan residents took advantage of the relaxation and hundreds of vehicles, which had been stopped for six days, were seen running to their destination, residents told Dawn.

Meanwhile, all the filling stations in Adenzai, Talash, Maidan and some in Timergara remained closed on Saturday due to non-availability of petrol and diesel. “We have not been supplied fuel for eight days and now the station has no fuel,” the owner of a filling station told Dawn in the Talash area, adding that oil tankers supplying diesel to these stations had been stranded due to the curfew in the Malakand agency.

Meanwhile, the operation in the Maidan area of Lower Dir continued on Saturday and forces pounded militants' hideouts in Lacha, Namazkot and other parts of Maidan.

The security forces fired mortar shells from Samar Bagh, Timergara and Islam Darra, targeting militants' positions in Maidan, sources said.