Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: Residents and other walks of life on Friday staged a protest demonstration against the illegal police raids on their homes and chanted slogans.
Several Pashtun Tahafuz Movement(PTM) leaders including district Khyber coordinator Aftab Shinwari and Tanzeem-e-Naujawanan workers also participated. They were holding banners inscribed with slogans against the police and Counter Terrorism Department(CTD) raids on their homes. They chanted slogans and walked from Bacha Khan Chowk to Landikotal Press Club.
Speaking on the occasion, Landikotal local government chairman Haji Shah Khalid Shinwari, Israr Shinwari, Aftab Shinwari, Kalimullah Shinwari, Sattar Shinwari and others said that they would not allow police to conduct raids on their homes and other compounds without the prior court orders. They said tribal peoples were pushed back to the Stone Age after merging Fata into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The speakers said tribal people were in the line of fire where innocent people were being killed and put in jails.
The tribal leaders said that it was against the law that a suspended police officer conduct raids who himself is under investigation in a case.
They threatened that if police or CTD again conducted an illegal raid in Landikotal they would besiege the Landikotal police station.
The elected leaders and pro-government elders said they would end their cooperation and coordination with the local police if they did not ensure the protection of their homes.
It may be added here that CDT Police from Peshawar had conducted raids in Khugakhel village two days ago which the residents condemned in the strong possible words
