PAN, July 9, 2013

Farmers’ killing sparks anti-ALP protest

While carrying the victims’ bodies, people of the area took to the streets on Tuesday morning, chanting slogans against ALP

By Hidayatullah Hamdard

People of the Dasht-i-Archi district of northern Kunduz province on Tuesday staged a protest against an Afghan Local Police (ALP) member who killed two farmers after they refused to give him Ushr.

The Afghan Local Police is a semi-volunteer force. (Photo: David Gilkey/NPR)

The incident took place on Monday evening when ALP official Iftikhar asked the growers for alms, but they declined giving him wheat. The policeman shot dead the famers and injured a 12 years old boy in Bajauri village.

While carrying the victims’ bodies, people of the area took to the streets on Tuesday morning, chanting slogans against ALP in the district centre.

“We are tired of this behaviour of ALP personnel. The farmers were killed 50 metres from the police headquarters, but the government could not arrest the culprit,” one of the protestors, Inzar Gul, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The ALP men seek a share in their crop yields in the name of Zakat and Ushr, complained a tribal elder from the area. Some elements joined the protest to fuel violence, but the demonstration ended on a peaceful note.

The district chief, Sheikh Sadruddin Saadi, said the local policeman had killed a farmer due to personal enmity. The policeman was also shot dead by the victim’s relatives, he added.

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