Banishing squatters: ETPB seeks Sindh police chief’s help to reclaim land

Chairman says encroachers in Hyderabad and Sukkur have occupied over 4,000 acres of land

ISLAMABAD:

The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) has sought help from the inspector general of police in Sindh to retrieve over 4,000 acres of land from encroachers in different parts of the province.

The development came during a meeting of the ETPB chaired by its head Siddiqul Farooq on Monday. The basic agenda of the meeting is to discuss different issues related to the trust.

After the meeting, Farooq told The Express Tribune that the board had sought help from the Sindh police chief to regain possession of the expensive land belonging to the trust. He claimed that local encroachers in Hyderabad and Sukkur had occupied over 4,000 acres of land.

The chairman said that since he took charge of the trust, the board had retrieved huge tracts of land from encroachers worth Rs8billion. Another 4,000 acres of land is still occupied by the locals in Hyderabad, which needs to be recovered. “We have requested IG Sindh to get encroachers off the land,” he added.



The meeting also decided to export Amrit Jal (or holy water) from the holy well of Gurdwara Nankana Sahib. He said that the ban was lifted in order to facilitate the Sikh community. Last year, the board had gifted over 5,000 bottles of Amrit Jal to the community living in Europe.

He said that the provincial and federal governments have also taken positive steps for the safety and security of the Hindu community and a temple will soon be constructed in Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2016.