CHITRAL, May 15: Federal Minster for States and Frontier Regions (Safron), Engineer Shaukatullah Khan, has said steps are being taken to enhance the capacity of the border police to protect the 370-km-long frontier Chitral district shares with Afghanistan.

Addressing a public gathering on the occasion of passing out parade of a badge of Chitral border police here on Sunday, he said that the force had rendered exemplary service in warding off the Afghan intruders into the area and kept effective vigilance on the borders despite limited resource and strength.

Mr Khan said that in the prevailing scenario, the importance of the border force had increased manifold and there was a dire need of raising it at par with other paramilitary forces and regular police.

Mr Shaukatullah announced to change the nomenclature of the force from Chitral border police to Chitral Levies and increase its numerical strength by 450 and give it a proper service structure. He also announced to enhance the Shuhada Package of the force from Rs0.5 million to Rs0.8 million with other privileges.

Earlier, the minister reviewed the smartly turned out parade and took salute along with the commandant of the force.

The district coordination officer, who is also the commandant of the force, highlighted the problems of the force and asked the federal minister to solve them to render it a vibrant entity having all required capabilities. More than 130 personnel passed out on the occasion.

Earlier, soon after arrival here from Peshawar, the federal minister met the elders of the city and heads of various political parties.