12 land grabbers apprehended in capital

As many as 12 members of land grabbing gang have been apprehended by the Islamabad Police, officials said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Islamabad administration has received another complaint against the infamous owners of Ghauri Town for the recovery of an encroached piece of land, and this time in the Sohadran graveyard In a crackdown against the land mafia, the capital police arrested 12 suspects during an operation, recovering weapons and ammunition from them.

A police spokesperson said that the crackdown was launched on the directions of Inspector-General of Islamabad Police (IGP) Aamir Zulfiqar Khan.

Teams of the Saddar and Rural Zones conducted an operation late on Saturday against land grabbers in their areas and nabbed 12 suspects, recovering weapons and ammunition from them.

Separately, the head-caretaker of the cemetery in Ghauri Town, Fazal, has complained to the Koral Assistant Commissioner (AC) that land of the Sohadran graveyard, sprawling over 57 kanals and five marlas, has been illegally occupied by the Ghauri Town housing project.

He pleaded that owners of the project, including Raja Ali Akbar, Chaudhry Usman, and Imran Aslam were trying to seize the remaining area of the cemetery as well.

In their latest bid to usurp land meant for the dead, Fazal asserted that land mafia members had come along with armed security guards and threatened the caretaker.

A senior official in the Islamabad capital territory administration told The Express Tribune that the application will be dealt with on merit.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2020.