Jirga criticises encroachment at graveyard in Mansehra

MANSEHRA: A jirga attended by people from various areas of the city and its suburbs have demanded the district administration, police and tehsil municipal administration to ground the structures built at a graveyard in the Channia area here on Friday.

“The construction of shops at an old graveyard where people still bury their loved ones is a conspiracy to trigger the law and order situation in the heart of the city and the departments concerned must play their role to defuse the tension,” Mohammad Fareed, a former nazim of neighbourhood council Channia, told the jirga.

The jirga, which was attended by people of three urban union councils, said that people wanted an immediate demolition of the shops built in the graveyard. “This jirga demands the district administration, police and the TMA to play their due role and remove the commercial structures built at night inside the graveyard,” said Fareed.

Another jirga member, Ali Asghar said that the administration should realise the sentiments of locals whose loved ones were buried at that graveyard where shops were built at night after demolition of its boundary grills. “We have raised this sensitive issue with the additional deputy commissioner and tehsil municipal administration and they assured us of the action but it is being delayed,” said Asghar.

Dr Mian Shafiqur Rehman, the prayer leader of a central mosque on Abbottabad road, rejected the commercial constructions at the graveyard during the Friday sermon. “One can build roads, mosques and other public welfare entities at the old graveyards but cannot use it for the commercial purpose as per Islamic teachings,” said Maulana Shafique.