PESHAWAR, Jan 23: The federal government would provide standard training and equipment to Levies and Khasadar forces to enable them to counter terrorist attacks in tribal areas, said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masood Kausar.

He was addressing a ceremony held in connection with distribution of compensation cheques among the families of the killed Levies personnel at Governor’s House here on Wednesday.

On the occasion, cheques of Rs3 million each were distributed among the families of 21 killed Levies personnel. Two injured Levies men got cheques worth Rs150,000 each.

The Levies men had been kidnapped and subsequently killed by militants in December last year when their checkposts were attacked at Hassankehl and Jani Kor areas of Frontier Region of Peshawar.

Referring to the incident, the governor promised to equip Levies and Khasadar forces with standard of training and required equipment to enable them to thwart such incidences in the future.

He said that a male member of each affected family would be provided job. He said that government would provide free medical facilities to all the affected families.

Mr Kausar said that the heirs of the killed security men would be imparted higher educational. He paid rich tributes to the killed personnel and said that the entire nation shared the grief of the affected families.

“There can never be any substitute to a human being and provision of the financial assistance to the affected families is just an attempt to ease their life to some extent,” he said.

The governor said that government was promoting democratic norms in Fata in the light of extension of Political Parties Act wherein people of tribal areas could avail the opportunities of better and secured future and contribute to development of the country like mainstream partners at the national level.

“In democratic system, guns are not applied rather the verdict of the people supersedes other things and the people are allowed to work for their own wellbeing as well as for development of the society,” Mr Kausar said.

Fata Additional Chief Secretary Dr Tashfin Khan and other senior officials of Fata Secretariat were also present on the occasion.

Referring to the points raised by the political administration of Fata, the governor said that vacancies in Levies in FR Peshawar would be filled at the earliest. He urged the people of the area to cooperate with the administration in maintenance of peace.

Earlier, Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Javed Marwat, who also acts as political agent for the area, spoke about law and order situation in the area. The participants of the ceremony also offered fateha for the departed souls of Levies men.

However, a source told this correspondent that awarding such a heavy compensation package to the affected was a compulsion of the government as Levies personnel were not ready to take arms against militants till acceptance of their demands. The main demands of them, the source said, was a package for the killed personnel on the pattern of police and provision of sufficient arms and ammunition to them.