‘Tired of burying the fallen’: Bajaur police boycott official ceremonies

By: Zahid Jan

Following the explosion in Mamund Tehsil of District Bajaur, funeral prayers for those martyred in the bomb explosion were offered at the Civil Colony in Khaar.

While Police protocol includes saluting the fallen in honour, but the martyrs’ colleagues boycotted this formality in protest.

Bajaur police cited a lack of basic a financial package for the police shuhada and their families in former FATA, that are provided to the force in other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and rest of the provinces

“Even after the integration of FATA, we are still running from pillar to post for the privileges given to the children of police martyrs,’ said Habibullah, a member of the force in a heart wrenching video that his since gone viral.

“First, we should be considered as humans, why are we being killed? We are tired of picking up the bodies of our police martyrs,” he added while addressing political and tribal elders present on the occasion.

The government had promised packages similar to the rest of KP police for the freshly conducted members from the levies force belonging to the tribal districts. Formerly they used to be under the direct control of the Political Agent and came under the domain of the federal Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON).

Earlier, The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for carrying out the roadside bomb explosion that targeted the police van in Bajaur. The attack killed at least six officers and wounded 10 others.

The police were assigned to protect workers in an anti-polio immunisation campaign when an IED (improvised explosive device) explosion hit it on Monday.