Akakhel elders demand retrieval of lands

PESHAWAR: Elders of Akakhel tribe from Bara subdivision of Khyber Agency have alleged that a former political agent had occupied their ancestral lands for construction of Shahid Afridi Stadium and demanded the governor to either compensate the affectees or retrieve the lands from him.

Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, Sartaj Khan along with other elders of the tribe said that they had been in tussle with non-Afridi tribe of Sheikhan village over disputed lands measuring 240 kanals for 50 years, which was resolved in 2007.

They said that the land had been handed over to the tribe and they considered the land to be used for commercial purpose to give opportunities of unemployment to the people in the area.Meanwhile, security forces launched military operation against militancy and they had to move to the Jalozai Camp in 2014.

“Peace was restored in the agency, we started returning to our native lands, but there we came to know that the then PA had already grabbed the land. We requested the PA to leave the land and offered him alternate lands as free of cost for the stadium but he wished the same one,” said a speaker.

They said that people of the tribe had taken up the issue with military and then under its supervision, a Jirga was formed for compensation to the affectees in head of the land.During the Jirga, an agreement was signed in the presence of assistant political and notables including Malik Zahir, Malik Waris Khan, Sohail Afridi, Gul Muran, Tehsildar Khalid and others, they claimed.

The jirga agreement, they said, bound the APA to give Rs120 millions to the relevant tribe within six months. However, they lamented that instead of abiding by the agreement, the APA dishonoured the elders when they demanded the money. They added that the APA neither provided them copies of the agreement, nor the amount.