Residents block road over land dispute

BATKHELA: The residents of Totakan continued blocking the Bosaq-Bajaur road for the second day on Monday and urged the district administrations of Malakand and Bajaur to resolve the land dispute and the boundary issue between the two districts.

The protesting residents placed ballast stones and blocks on Bosaq-Bajaur road and blocked it for vehicular traffic. “The district administrations of Malakand and Bajaur are not serious about setting the Bosaq land dispute and boundary demarcation between the two districts. The officials of both the districts have been applying delaying tactics for the last 20 years,” the elders alleged, adding that they would continue staging protest sit-in on Bosaq-Bajaur road if the issue was not resolved one and for all. The elders said that officials of the two districts would be held responsible if any untoward incident happened. Members of the jirga including Arshad Khan, Ijaz Ali Khan, Sajjad Ahmad and Assistant Commissioner Sohail Khan later held talks with the protesting elders but they refused to reopen the road for traffic. They demanded the jirga members and administration to first resolve the land dispute and then the road would be opened.

Meanwhile, two committees were constituted one each from Bajaur and Malakand for settling the land and boundary disputes between the two districts. Assistant Commissioner Zahid Sherpao, Malik Fida Khan, Malik Qurban Ali and Mian Masood are representing the Bajaur committee while Habibullah Khan, Arshad Khan, Ijaz Ali Khan, Sajjad Ahmad and Shakirullah Khan are members of Malakand committee.

The members have launched efforts for settling the land dispute between Bajaur and Malakand districts. It may be mentioned that the people of Malakand and Bajaur had clashed over the disputed land in March, last year. One Rahmat Saeed of Totakan had sustained injuries during the clash. Both the people of Totakan in Malakand and Sharbatai area of Bajaur claim ownership of the land on a hilltop in Bosaq area. The case is pending in the court of the commissioner.