Families of 21 slain Levies men awaiting compensation

PESHAWAR: No compensation has been announced for the 21 Levies personnel who were killed by militants on December 30 after their kidnapping from the Frontier Region Peshawar.

The government is yet to announce any ‘Shaheed Package’ for the slain Levies personnel like those for the police and army. The officials were getting a meagre salary and didn’t have sufficient ammunition to counter any attack.

“No compensation package has been announced for the Levies men, either in shape of financial support or by recruiting their family members in any government department. No funeral with state honours was arranged for the victims of such a major incident like the ones arranged by the police after the killing of even a single cop,” said an official requesting anonymity.

He admitted that there was anger among the tribesmen as no official even attended the funeral prayers.The FR Peshawar and FR Kohat have 250 Levies personnel each but most don’t even have a rifle. Eight among the Levies force personnel deployed on the Ghakay Sar checkpost had only three rifles.

“The force of the FR Kohat and FR Peshawar had only 50 rifles. They don’t have proper posts or barracks and are underpaid,” a source said. The source added that the federal and provincial governments and administration of FR Peshawar had so far failed to announce compensation or improve the condition of the rest of the force.

The militants had killed two security personnel and injured another one before they kidnapped 23 men of the inadequately trained and lightly armed Levies force on the night between December 26 and 27 when they stormed two security posts as well as their residential barracks inside a telephone exchange and a technical college hostel in the Frontier Region Peshawar.

Twenty-one Levies personnel were later shot dead in Kohi Hassankhel in FR Peshawar on December 29 after they were blindfolded and lined up with their hands tied behind their backs. Reports said they were shot execution style in a ground. Their bodies were dumped in the Jabba Hassankhel area of FR Peshawar about four kilometres from the place where they had been kidnapped.

Most of the slain men belonged to Hassankhel, Janakor and nearby villages of the semi-tribal FR Peshawar, which is surrounded by Darra Adamkhel, Khyber Agency and Matani in Peshawar.

The Darra Adamkhel chapter of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for both the kidnapping and killing of the Levies men. Its spokesman said the Levies men were killed to avenge the assassination of Sheikh Naseeb Khan and Commander Faisal while they were in custody of the security forces.

Some of the slain men were identified as Inayatullah, Hidayat, Wazir Ali, Hayat Ali, Yamin Khan, Shamim, Abdul Shakoor, Mohammad Ali, Danish, Asif, Ahmad, Alamzeb, Abdul Mannan, Arshad, Noor Ali, Misri Khan, Nazir, Anwar, Ayaz, Noor Khan, Khan Imran and his cousin Ali Abbas.

The mother of Hayat Ali died of cardiac arrest when she heard the news of his death. The families of the slain Levies personnel criticised the federal and provincial governments as well as the district administration of Peshawar for failing to secure the safe recovery of the kidnapped men or arranging their funeral with state honours.

One Levies soldier Amanullah was wounded and later expired. Another Levies soldier miraculously escaped unharmed.The incident is the third of its kind after the killing of 18 policemen in Upper Dir district in July last year by the Pakistani Taliban operating from Afghanistan’s Kunar and Nuristan provinces and another group of 15 FC soldiers in Tank in January. The militants later released the videos of the early two incidents of shooting of the law enforcers. It is possible that the video of the latest incident may also emerge.

No progress has been made in the recovery of 14 labourers and officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company who were kidnapped in February while fixing some fault near Matani.

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