‘Controversial’ statue removed in Haripur

HARIPUR: The local administration removed the metal statue of a horseman erected at a roundabout in the Haripur city, official sources and eyewitnesses said on Saturday.

The Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) had installed the monument of a sword-wielding turbaned warrior riding a horse.

The statue rested on a round-shaped cemented structure constructed in the middle of the main chowk, formerly known for decades as Panian Chowk.

Later it was named after a minor girl, Shaheen who was killed in the main bazaar during aerial firing.

The chowk was again renamed a few years back after the first caliph Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq (RA) as Siddiq- e-Akbar Chowk. The horseman’s statue project was completed in 2017at a cost of Rs2.5 million, according to official sources.

The statue later became controversial when the chowk was called Ghora Chowk instead of Siddiq-e-Akbar Chowk that annoyed the activists of religious parties who demanded removal of the monument. A few days back, according to official sources, the activists of a couple of religious parties threatened to forcibly remove the statue.

However, on Friday night, according to eyewitnesses, the officials of TMA removed the monument.

Assistant Commissioner Headquarters Rao Hashim Azeem, Tehsil Municipal Officer Fakhar-ul-Islam and TMA Engineer Javed Khan were not available for comments. An official, who requested not to be named, said the TMA officials removed the statue following growing criticism from religious parties.