PAN, May 25, 2013

Hundreds rally against Afghan Local Police force in Paktika

He said there has been opposition to policemen entering people's homes that civilians had often suffered casualties whenever the ALP members had been attacked by the rebels

By Ali Mohammad Nazari

Hundreds of people on Saturday staged a protest in the capital of southeastern Paktika province, asking Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel to take away their posts from their homes.

The protesting residents asked security high ups to establish posts for ALP members away from residential houses as their presence posed threat to their lives.

Malak Haji Adam Khan, one of the protest organizers, said ALP members were creating problems for residents.

He claimed the militia men used civilian houses as their posts, a move disliked in a Pashtun society.

He said there has been opposition to policemen entering people's homes that civilians had often suffered casualties whenever the ALP members had been attacked by the rebels.

A tribal council member Abdur Rahman Andar suggested the ALP members should be provided with posts of their own and be moved from civilian homes they had been allowed to use as posts.

Azizullah Karwan, who spearheads the militia, said the force had been allowed to use houses as posts with the consent of tribal elders until formal posts for them were constructed.

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