ALP deployment to 14 districts approved

JALALABAD (PAN-led forces, has approved recruitment into the Afghan Local Police (ALP) force for 14 districts of eastern Nangarhar province to maintain security in insecure areas along the Pakistani border, an official said on Sunday.

The decision came at a meeting a day earlier in the Governor’s House in Jalalabad, the provincial capital, where Afghan officials and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commanders conferred on how to raise and deploy the proposed force, the governor’s spokesman said.

Ahmad Zia Abulzai added prominent among the participants were Governor Gul Agha Sherzai, the US Special Forces commander in the east and ALP chief Birg. Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadzai. Tribal elders and local government officials were also in attendance.

Ahmazai, who briefed the meeting, said 2,250 people were being employed to perform security duties in their respective towns. The objective is to keep remote and insecure areas from descending into chaos after 2014, when foreign troops will pull out of the country.

With the deployment, Abdulzai quoted Ahmadzai as saying, the security situation in border areas would improve and youth would find an opportunity to serve their people and protect them from the enemy threat.

ALP recruits will be deployed to Dara-i-Noor, Durbaba, Koz Kunar, Goshta, Nizayan, Achin, Kot, Haska Meena, Chaparhar, Pachir Agam, Khugyani, Sherzad, Hesarak and Batikot, all lying cheek by jowl with the Pakistani border.

The ALP chief said the deployment was a demand of Sherzai and the militias would be raised soon. The US Special Forces commander had promised assisting the police, he said.

Residents of the towns, which are often hit with rockets and artillery fire from the Pakistani side the border, have long been demanding the deployment of local police in their areas. However, there are reports that local policemen are frequently held in contempt by the communities they served.

ma/mud

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