A Security Apparatus Threatening The Livelihood and Security of The People of Chitral
 

One week the sleepy bazaar of Garam Chashma, a border town in Chitral, was awakened to the sirens and blue lights of a police patrol escorting un-identifyable people sitting in Prado Landcruisers. The scene was of a typical VIP party. Everyone in town were curious to know who the guests were who were so efficiently being escorted to the government guest house where a freshly slaughtered lamb, cooked on wood fire, awaited their arrival.
When news came out that the "VIP" in town was a son of Isfandyar Wali Khan of ANP the Garam Chashma people were neither impressed nor surprised.
The surprise came next morning when it was revealed that this "son of Isfandyar Wali Khan" was actually an impostor who had received government protocol and had lived and fed off government facilities ever since he entered the district through the Lowari tunnel two days ago.
The impostor turned out to be one Naushad Ali son of Momin Khan from Landi Kotal in the Khyber Agency.
Naushad, to the embarrassment of the DPO and all the many intelligence agencies in Chitral, is now in jail and FIR no. 467 dated 16/6/2012 has been registered against him which also names the DPO (District Police Officer) in this sordid drama.
Here in Chitral, since the posting in of DPO Abdul Rashid, both the police as well as the intelligence agencies have put them selves into top gear to hound every foreigner who enters this otherwise peaceful district.
In their misplaced enthusiasm they promptly deported Dr Peter Hatcher, who has done exceptional good work in the field of maternity health in Chitral since 2002. He had returned to Chitral ten days ago to work with the Aga Khan Health Services. And then, only the other day, they stopped Mr Brian Fawcett from proceeding with the twenty two projects he had brought to Chitral through the P&D of KPK and for which he had every conceivable NOC right down from Section Officer Qamar Ali ( the most exacting person in KPK Home Dept) to the Headquarters of 11 Corp whose sepoy manning the barrier at Dargai sees "foreigners" only from their blond hair and pale skin.
The scary bit for all of us here in Chitral is that, with the system currently in place, the good tourist (who is bringing income directly into chitral) will find it impossible and uninteresting to come to Chitral while people like impostor Naushad Ali will enter unhindered. So will it be easy for Afghans, Arabs, Iraqi"s etc who do not qualify as a "foreigner" to the average ISI, IB and MI who are in the field.
Naushad Ali from Landi Kotal thankfully was not a terrorist with a Prado full of explosives.
God continues to help and protect the beautiful people of my district. We shall continue to pray to HIM to protect us from the present lot of officials posted to serve us. -- Siraj Ul Mulk, Chitral 24 June 2012.

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