Bazaar is closed as people have to take arms round the clock,” the lashkar head said.

Mr Khan said that the lashkar and local police forced militants to vacate their houses in different suburban villages.

“The government on one hand deploys police, anti-terrorist squad, elite force and Frontier Constabulary and uses lashkar against militants but on the other it registers cases against the volunteers whenever they capture any militant in the area,” he said.

He said that several FIRs were registered against anti-Taliban volunteers. “It is an act of blackmailing by the government,” he alleged.

The Taliban, he said, time and again made offer to them for ceasefire but it was turned down. They were ready to pay compensation to lashkar if it stopped action against them, he said.

“On Wednesday, militants attacked our houses but none of the ministers and government officials bothered to visit us nor they condemned the incident,” he said and threatened to stop supporting police in future.

Mr Khan said that the volunteers were doing well against militants but they belonged to opposition parties and the Awami National Party-led government did not want to support them.