That the real estate is among the most flourishing of the businesses in the country is hardly debatable. The guaranteed profits in the sale and purchase of land and properties have also drawn scoundrels towards this business. These scoundrels have now morphed into an influential mafia with connections in the upper echelons. They are bitterly callous and never hesitate to take somebody’s life for the sake of their own illegal and immoral takings.
The land mafia is mostly rooted in rural areas but recently it has become active in urban areas also. Through their influence, this mafia threatens common people, occupy their land forcibly and then turn them into lucrative housing schemes or shopping malls. A recent Tarnab Farm Peshawar incident is an example in the context. The incident involves a former legislator and his brothers who used their political clout to grab the land owned by a family. But on their failure to occupy the land, they killed two brothers of the family and left one more injured. The culprits are at large.
The authorities should make their best efforts to ensure justice in the case. The culprits should be turned into an example so that the unbridled land mafia in the country could be reined in.
Irfan Ullah Paracha
Peshawar
Published in The Express Tribune, August 14th, 2020.
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