Man held for damaging city wall

PESHAWAR: The police arrested a man on Sunday for damaging the historical City Wall after the town-I administration registered a case.

Talking to The News, Town-I Nazim, Zahid Nadeem, said he received a complaint from residents that someone had damaged the City Wall opposite Haidari Petrol Station in Yakkatoot.

He said that he sent a team to assess the situation but the accused claimed that he had not damaged the wall. The accused claimed that the wall had fallen at night.

Zahid Nadeem said that later in the day residents again complained that the accused had started installing a door in the damaged portion of the wall.

The nazim said the police party from the relevant police station reached the spot and arrested one Abdul Waheed. The police registered a case against him for damaging the wall.

Zahid Nadeem said that the work on restoration of the wall had been restarted.

It may be mentioned here that the City Wall was constructed with mud by the Sikh Governor General Avitabile during his rule from 1838 to 1842. The step was taken to protect the citizens of Peshawar. The wall was replaced with bricks by the British in the early part of the 20th century. A total of 16 main gates and two small gates – Kohati Tedi and Gunj Tedi – were added to the wall.

The government departments could not protect the heritage structure as the unscrupulous elements kept on demolishing the City Wall from time to time when the population of the city started swelling after the Independence of the country.

The Local Government last year launched the work to repair the damaged portion of the wall. The work was started from the Kohati Gate locality on the City Circular Road that has the shrine of the famous folk character Pari Chehra.