PESHAWAR, Jan 14: The personnel of Levies Force have refused to perform duty in Frontier Region of Peshawar till fulfillment of their demands regarding provision of arms and compensation to the families of their killed colleagues.

A reliable source in the force, pleading anonymity, told Dawn on Monday that 22 Levies men were killed by Taliban but government did not take any action in that regard.

Criticising the government, he said that none of the senior officials bothered to participate in the funeral prayers of the killed Levies personnel nor offered fateha for them at their homes.

“The administration had announced to compensate the affected families. We are still waiting for the compensation,” the source said and added that even sufficient arms and ammunition were not provided to Levies personnel.

He said that out of 230 Levies personnel in the area only 45 had been given official weapons while the rest of them were using their personal arms against militants. He said that it was impossible for them to perform duty in such condition any longer.

An elder of Hassankhel area said that the administration was forcing people to form anti-Taliban lashkar but they were not ready to do so. “We have already suffered a lot and are unable to take more risks,” he said, adding that government was not supporting the people and was using them for its own purpose.

It is to be mentioned here that 21 Levies personnel had been kidnapped and subsequently killed by militants few weeks ago in FR Peshawar.

Efforts were made to contact the deputy commission of Peshawar, who is also political agent of FR Peshawar, but he could not be approached by the telephone. Similarly, FR Peshawar Assistant Political Agent Naveed Akbar also did not attend his telephone to give his version in this regard.