Daily Times

Hundreds of residents of Saidu Sharif, an area in Swat district, lashed out an organized group of crime that is active in the area and involved mostly in the grabbing of public and private lands.

The residents who also staged a protest rally censured the law and order departments for failing to take steps and put an end to the anti-social activities of the crime group that the protestors also referred to as ‘land mafia.

Addressing the rally of the protestors, Dr Khalid Mahmud, former union council nazim, said the land mafia has deprived many people of their land. The land mafia has occupied the land of Saidu Sharif graveyard.

Dr Khalid also said that the land for the Saidu Sharif’s graveyard was purchased by the government and is a public property as “the provincial government bought a total 297-Kanals of land for the burial ground but some governmental officials have taken bribe in exchange for transferring possession right to the land mafia and registered it in the names members of the land grabbing group”.

He also took a swipe at the silence maintained by both the members of national and provincial assembly of the ruling party ,Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

“People are fed up with their representatives of both the provincial and national assembly for failing to stop these land grabbers from taking possession of public-private properties via illegal collusion with the state officials.” Dr .Khalid said, adding that it was time for them (the people) to come forward and resolve this issues on their own as the authorities had badly failed.

Several other speakers also addressed the rally and demanded the office of the Deputy Commissioner Swat to look into the matter and thoroughly investigate all those Patwaris and Tehsildars who had their service in the area after 2009.