Encroachment in Rehman Baba graveyard continue

PESHAWAR: The historical graveyard located in Hazarakhwani area of Peshawar is being encroached upon by land grabbers, it has been learnt.

The Hazarakhwani graveyard commonly known as Rehman Baba cemetery is the second largest graveyard in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) after the Charsadda district cemetery.

Residents of the area have filed several complaints with the district administration against the land grabbing of the historical cemetery but the administration has turned a blind eye to the issue. They demanded of the district administration to take appropriate and timely action to build safety and boundary walls to prevent the graveyard’s further deterioration.

According to the district’s land record, the Rehman Baba graveyard, the largest in the city, was originally spread over an area of around 1,600 kanal, but now it has been reduced to around 500 kanal. The grabbed land is worth billions of rupees. An official at the land record department said that the historic and one of largest graveyard of the region is the victim of illegal encroachment.

He said that the Rehman Baba cemetery was stretched up to the Akhund Darwiza Baba graveyard, Kakshal, Nothia and Tehkal graveyards, but with the passage of time the land reserved for the graveyard has shrunk.

The official said that land grabbers have set up enclosures at the Rehman Baba cemetery claiming to protect the graves. Once they built the wall, they convert the enclosures into houses. The land grabbers then conceal the graves by dumping construction material there, he added.

Several other graveyards including the Twon-1, Town-2, Town-3 and Town-4 graveyards of the provincial capital are being encroached upon by land grabbers and no one from the relevant authorities have taken any action to protect it.

Concerned citizens of the provincial metropolis had also launched the Save Graveyards Movement against land grabbers constructing houses and commercial buildings in the graveyards of the city.

A visible sign of encroachment over the burial ground was the garve of the father of the former president General Ziaul Haq. Once present in the centre of the graveyard, the resting place of Muhammad Akbar Ali was now close to the road. People were planning to build a house near the grave, locals told The Express Tribune. Zia’s father grave was likely to disappear like many other hraves in the cemetery due to land grabbing.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2020.