20 shops demolished in Haripur operation

HARIPUR: The district administration here on Friday demolished 20 cemented shops and a portion of a mosque constructed on a water channel in Sikandarpur area.

Additional Assistant Commissioner Adnan Jamil Khan, while briefing the media, said the owners of the shops had been occupying more than one kanal commercial land on Dheri Road for the last several years.

He said the illegal occupants had covered the irrigation channel and constructed 20 cemented shops while some of the encroached a portion of state land was being used for the washrooms of Masjid Anwar-e-Madina. The occupants, according to the official, had encroached on 11 to 14 feet land that was the property of the district council.

He said the authorities had marked the encroached land about a year ago and issued notices to the occupants for voluntary demolition, but they moved court claiming the ownership. However, the occupants were once again served notices after the court decision but they continued ignoring them.

On Friday, the anti-encroachment squad comprising revenue staff, officials of TMA Haripur, Pesco, PTCL and police contingent with excavators reached the market and razed all the 20 shops and portion of the mosque. The official said the land retrieved was more than one kanal, with a market value of over Rs150 million.