Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Police accused of extorting money from IDPs

Political and social organisations of Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency have taken strong exception to unlawful detention of internally displaced families of Bara by Peshawar police for extortion and warned of a protest demonstration in front of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Peshawar if the practice is not stopped. In separate statements of condemnation, the Khyber Agency chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami, Khyber Union and Kamarkhel Khidmat-i-Khalq Committee accused the Peshawar police deputed at Sarband ploice station of unlawfully detaining innocent displaced persons and later releasing them on payment of bribes. Shah Faisal Afridi, Bara JI amir, claimed in his statement that innocent residents were implicated in false cases when they refused to pay bribe to Sarband police. He alleged that migrating women, children and elderly people were forced to wait on road for hours when they could not pay the illegal money to police officials. Haris Afridi, Khyber Union president, said that a deliberate attempt was being made by Peshawar police to provoke the innocent Bara residents into violence and then apprehend them on false charges. He said that the matter had been brought repeatedly into the notice of Peshawar police high-ups, but no action was taken against the corrupt officials. Khayal Matshah Afridi, chairman of the Khidmat-i-Khalq Committee, accused the Awami National Party’s top leadership of hatching a conspiracy against the law-abiding tribesmen and punishing them in the name of fight against terrorism.