MARDAN, Aug 21 The residents of Mardan on Friday announced to form a lashkar to counter militants, kidnappers and robbers in the district.

The decision was taken at a meeting of local elders held at the residence of Alam Khan Mohmand in Shankar here.

The lashkar was formed in the wake of recent increase in incidents of kidnapping for ransom of influential and well-off people from Mardan and other crimes. The elders said the lashkar would consist of young people to be selected from every clan and area of the district.

The meeting expressed concern over government's failure to provide protection to the residents, saying many people had been kidnapped from Mardan and their families had to pay huge ransoms for their release.

Five gangs of Skhakot, an adjacent town of the Malakand region, are allegedly involved in the kidnapping of people from Mardan.

The elders at the meeting announced that if the gangs tried to kidnap a Mardan resident for ransom in future, the lashkar would rise against them. They said that in retaliation they would kidnap an influential person from the Skhakot town and would keep him in custody till the accused promised not to kidnap the people of Mardan. “If the kidnappers harm our people, their people will also be harmed by the residents of Mardan,” they warned.

The meeting also constituted a committee comprising Miran Gul, Jehanzeb, Karim Gul, Saeed Akhtar and Mushtaq Seemab, who would later form a cabinet which would be registered.

HOUSE BLOWN UP Unidentified people blew up the house of a woman from Punjab living in the Mirwas Dheri area here, early Friday morning.

Farzana, who hails from the Gujranwala, had a rented house in the area, which was blown up. However, no casualty was reported. The reason behind the incident could not be ascertained. Meanwhile, a reference meeting was held at the Mardan Press Club on Friday for slain journalist Sadique Bacha. Speaking on the occasion, Mardan Deputy Inspector General of Police Syed Akhtar Ali Shah, who was the chief guest, paid tribute to Mr Bacha and gave an assurance that his killers would soon be arrested.

Mr Bacha had been shot dead allegedly by Changez Khan and Babar in front of his office on the Shamsi road on Aug 14.

A local leader of the Pakistan People's Party, Ashrafuddin Khan, also condemned the killing of Mr Bacha.