Residents demand retrieval of lands

NOWSHERA: Several citizens on Friday demanded retrieval of their precious lands which they alleged had been grabbed by the mafia to launch an illegal housing society.

Speaking at a news conference, residents of Azakhel town of the Nowshera district, including Shamshad Khan, Muhammad Jalal, Dr Attaullah Awan and others alleged that Ihsanul Haq, son of Shah Mahmood, a resident of Lower Dir was a land-grabber.

They alleged that Ihsanul Haq grabbed their precious lands in Azakhel town and launched the “Shaheen Education City” housing scheme there.

The residents alleged that the land mafia minted money from a good number of people but later it emerged that the housing society was unregistered and hence illegal.

They said the Ihsanul Haq later replaced the name of the housing society with “Garden City” and applied to the Nowshera Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) for a no-objection certificate (NOC).

The residents alleged that the land mafia had applied for the NOC for the housing society having 102 pieces of land.

They said the actual area of the society was 1,200 kanal of land but Ihsanul Haq had shown it only 140 kanal to obtain the NOC which was another fraud. The residents alleged that Ihsanul Haq had deputed armed private guards on the lands grabbed from them to keep the real owners away from the site.

They urged the Nowshera TMO and other relevant authorities not to issue any NOC to the “Garden City” as it was a fake housing society, requesting them to help them with reclaiming their lands from this alleged land mafia.