MARDAN The residents of Mardan on Friday announced to form a lashkar to counter militants, kidnappers and robbers in the district.

The decision was taken at a meeting of local elders held at the residence of Alam Khan Mohmand in Shankar here.

The lashkar was formed in the wake of recent increase in incidents of kidnapping for ransom of influential and well-off people from Mardan and other crimes. The elders said the lashkar would consist of young people to be selected from every clan and area of the district.

The meeting expressed concern over government's failure to provide protection to the residents, saying many people had been kidnapped from Mardan and their families had to pay huge ransoms for their release.

Five gangs of Skhakot, an adjacent town of the Malakand region, are allegedly involved in the kidnapping of people from Mardan.

The elders at the meeting announced that if the gangs tried to kidnap a Mardan resident for ransom in future, the lashkar would rise against them. They said that in retaliation they would kidnap an influential person from the Skhakot town and would keep him in custody till the accused promised not to kidnap the people of Mardan. 'If the kidnappers harm our people, their people will also be harmed by the residents of Mardan,' they warned.

The meeting also constituted a committee comprising Miran Gul, Jehanzeb, Karim Gul, Saeed Akhtar and Mushtaq Seemab, who would later form a cabinet which would be registered.