State land worth Rs5.31b reclaimed

BANNU: The district administration has retrieved precious commercial land worth Rs5.31 billion from land grabbers during the four-day grand operation in Bannu city, officials said on Sunday.

Briefing media, Commissioner Bannu Shaukat Yousafzai and Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Zubair Niazi said that 175 shops and markets and a madarassa were razed during the anti-encroachment drive. They said that the administration had received complaints about illegal occupation of state land by influential people for commercial activities near the cattle market and other localities in the heart of the city.