By By Javed Aziz Khan
“We are deeply concerned at the hiring of houses in the University Town by suspicious foreign elements and we will lodge a protest with the government in this regard,” Col (retd) Hameed Afridi, the president of the University Town Residents Welfare Society, said.
The society has around 800 families as its members. The late NWFP governor, Aslam Khattak, was the patron-in-chief of the society till his death and has now been replaced by Maj Gen (retd) Naseerullah Babar, another former governor and federal interior minister.
Afridi feared there was definitely something wrong with the mission and intentions of these foreigners and that’s why they were keeping their movement secret. “If they are clear, they should not hide themselves,” he added, saying such foreigners had recently hired a house just opposite to his residence.
The authorities, especially the Frontier Police as well as the Special Branch, have always denied the presence of personnel of any foreign security agency in the city. Hameed Afridi was angry over the closure of a road in the area where the American Club was located. Several roads leading to the US Consulate in the Cantonment are closed for the past six years and traffic is diverted to other routes.
“There are offices and residences of foreigners on Jamaluddin Afghani Road, Rahman Baba Road and other areas. This was a purely residential area, but now it has been converted into a commercial town,” he complained.
Mrs Cheema Rauf, a former member of the management committee of the society, expressed ignorance about the presence of suspicious foreigners in the locality, but said a rocket had landed recently at her house. “We remained unhurt as my family was in Abbottabad. But I would say that there is no say of the University Town residents in the affairs of the town these days,” she said.
Engineer Usman, the Nazim of Hayatabad, another wealthy locality of the provincial metropolis, denied the presence of any suspicious foreign elements in his area, but said he had seen vehicles, with tinted glasses, of foreigners in the University Town and the University Road.
“There is no bungalow in Hayatabad being used by Blackwater or other organisation or suspicious foreigners because we have launched a campaign against renting out buildings to strangers without proper verification. Also, we do not allow commercial activities in residential area and if someone violates the rule, we disconnect his water, power and gas supply and later move to cancel his plot allotment,” Usman added.
He was, however, worried about the media reports regarding the arrival of foreign security agents in Peshawar and other parts of the country. “What we have been hearing about the presence of Blackwater or other suspicious foreigners in Peshawar and Pakistan is alarming,” he continued.