Police refusal to provide security to polio teams

In three tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the police officials have refused to provide security to the polio teams on the occasion of the polio campaign, due to which the polio campaign could not be started in these areas.

Polio campaign was announced in 17 districts of the province from August 7 to 11. Among them, the authorities are facing difficulties due to the lack of security in Mohmand tribal district, Khyber and North Waziristan in eleven union councils, while the remaining 14 districts and The anti-polio campaign will continue in the organized areas.

Syed Jalal Wazir, Chairman of the Police Force Ittehad from Khyber District, said that after the merger of the former tribal agencies and the Special and Levies Force of the existing tribal districts, it was decided that they will be merged into the Police Force of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But despite the passage of four years, the problems of the tribal police force have not been resolved.

In this regard, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Cabinet Information Minister Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhil told Independent Urdu that Caretaker Chief Minister Azam Khan took notice of the refusal of the police force to provide security during the anti-polio campaign in the tribal districts of Khyber and Mohmand. and has also asked for a report from IG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in this regard.

When contacted, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Operations Center for Anti-Polio Virus said that like other districts of the province, polio teams were ready in Khyber and Mohmand districts, but the police refused to provide security there, due to which the polio campaign was not started. has gone He said that when the police force will provide security in these districts, the district administration will start the polio campaign.

Khyber District Health Officer Dr. Zafar Ali Khan said that polio teams were ready on his behalf. He said that the administration’s negotiations with the police force are also ongoing and it is hoped that soon the police force will agree to provide security to the polio teams and start the campaign.

Deputy Commissioner of Mohmand Ehtesham said that the police force has suspended the campaign for an indefinite period for not providing security to the polio teams in relation to their demands.

He said that the police force is in discussion with its higher authorities and the time security is provided to the polio campaign, the campaign will be restarted.

Nazir Khan, district police officer of district Mohmand, told Independent Urdu that the decision to boycott by providing security during the polio campaign was not only in district Mohmand, but in all tribal districts, but in Mohmand and Khyber because the polio campaign is starting on August 7. which could not be done due to the boycott.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s former Home Secretary and Additional IG Police Akhtar Ali Shah told Independent Urdu that the Police Act 2017 is clear that refusal of the security force to perform its duties is considered as major misconduct because the police force is bound by discipline and Such denial of duty or boycott has not happened before in the police force. He said that the police force in the province has gone through a very tough time due to terrorism, but at no time did the police force refuse to perform its duties.

Former AIG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that after the merger, Khasadar and Levies force are gradually being integrated into the police.

In this regard, DSP Syed Jalal Wazir, chairman of the Tribal Police Force Alliance, told Independent Urdu that the Tribal Police Force has refused duty during the anti-polio campaign in connection with ongoing efforts to meet their demands.

Syed Jalal Wazir said that there are 22 demands of the police force of the tribal districts, in connection with which a jirga of the tribal force alliance was held in Peshawar’s Bagh Naran, in which the top officials of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police and the provincial government were asked to resolve their issues. If not, Muharram duty and polio campaign duty will be boycotted.

DSP Syed Jalal said that on the request of law and order and high officials of the police, he performed Muharram duty and now he has refused to provide security to the polio workers by announcing a social boycott from the polio campaign.

Zaheer Khan, Police Spokesperson of Khyber Tribal District, confirmed the refusal of the police force in the district and said that after the merger in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 4,000 Khasadars and Levies were integrated into the police force and there are some demands regarding their service structure.

The spokesman said that Khyber Police has tried hard to solve the problems of the police force at the district level, but some of the demands may be with the approval of the provincial government, for which they are struggling.

DSP Syed Jalal Wazir, chairman of the alliance of tribal police force, said that the number of tribal police forces in all the tribal districts is 29 thousand, but they have not been provided with the facilities and service structure that the police forces of other districts get. are

He said that now the Levies should not only be given the privileges that the provincial police are getting, but in the same way that the Levies force in Balochistan performs duties in the Levi uniform, they should also be allowed.

Their demands include that if the government wants to merge the Levies Special Force with the Police, then all the Levies and Special Agencies and FRs existing in the current era should be given full privileges to the Police without any conditions. be included in the force.

One of their demands is that pant shirts are not favored in tribal traditions, so they should be asked to serve in shalwar kameez.

The tribal police force demands that like the police force of other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the police of the tribal districts should also be given a package to the families of the officers who lost their lives in terrorism. He said that the police officers of the Arusha districts are given one crore rupees while the tribal force officials are given five million rupees.

Syed Jalal Wazir, chairman of the Tribal Police Force Alliance, said that the elite police of the tribal police have not been trained yet.

He said that until their problems are resolved, such duties can be boycotted in the future.

A copy of the twenty-two point demands of the tribal force alliance is available with Independent Urdu.

According to the Emergency Operation Center of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the anti-polio campaign is running in 31 districts of the entire country and 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa till August 11.

Currently, polio virus is found in only two countries in the world, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, and two polio cases have been reported in Pakistan this year, while four have been reported in Afghanistan.

When I talked to the Director Public Relations of the IG Police of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa about the refusal of the tribal police force to provide security for the anti-polio campaign, he said that it is a matter of the district police and the concerned district police officer should decide in this regard. will