LANDI KOTAL, Sept 26: Threats from banned militant outfit Lashkar-i-Islam have forced official teams to leave Bara subdivision of Khyber Agency without completing census and voters' registration process, according to sources.

Sources said that Mangal Bagh, the chief of Lashkar-i-Islam, issued threats to census and voters registration officials through his private FM radio channel and forced them to leave the area.

Khyber Agency Assistant Election Commissioner Qayum Shinwari, when contacted, confirmed premature return of census staff, saying the process would be resumed as soon as security situation improved in the areas under the influence of Lashkar-i-Islam.

Mangal Bagh has threatened the officials and tribal people to award them harsh punishment for conducting and participating in the ongoing process of census and voters' registration in Khyber Agency.

In his address, broadcast through his FM radio channel in Spin Warand town of Tirah valley, he placed ban on officials to conduct census and register voters. He warned the official teams of dire consequences if they didn't stop their activities.

The LI chief also warned the tribal people of punishment for registering themselves in the voters list and participating in census. He said that opposition to government policies would continue unless it held talks with Lashkar-i-Islam leadership.

He said that elected representatives and elders of the area were taking interest in voters' registration and census instead of law and order situation in Khyber Agency.

“Hundreds of people have died in Khyber Agency but no government agency or public representative has bothered to list their names or establish a team for the purpose,” he said.

Opposing Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), he said that Lashkar-i-Islam would not let the programme succeed in the tribal area.

However, the Lashkar chief said in his fresh speech on his FM radio channel on Sunday night that in case of US attack on tribal areas his fighters would back the government and military forces to defeat forces of 'bigger enemy'.

He said his men would fight against American forces with full strength to defend frontiers of the motherland. He said that it would be a jihad and every Pakistani was required to take part in it according to his capacity.

Officials of the political administration said that threats to local residents over enrolling themselves in the new voters list were verified by pro-administration local elders in Tirah valley.

“We are devising a security plan to ensure that people of Tirah and some localities in Bara are not left out from voters list,” said an official, who requested not to be named.

The election commission, meanwhile, has dispatched its staffers to Landi Kotal and Jamrud tehsil and started enrollment of new voters and expunging bogus names from the old list.

Mr Shinwari said that the new list would be prepared in accordance with the new rules and voters with computerised national identity cards would be enrolled while names of those enrolled with the old national identity card would be deleted.

The election commission have also started enrollment of new voters at Jalozai camp where at least 4,000 families from different parts of Bara are residing.