A landlord and his accomplices have seized a local school and turned it into a cow shed.
According to local residents, a local landlord in Talamba has seized a government school for boy’s and has converted it into a shed for his livestock. Talamba village 125-7ER residents said that landlord Azhar Chaudhry and his accomplices had seized the property several months ago but they had recently closed the school.
“The school shares a boundary wall with the landlord’s property and previously they used to tie up their buffaloes in the school grounds but they didn’t interfere with the school,” said school guard Ghafoor.
“Last month they even turned out students and furniture from the building and converted it into a cow shed,” he added. The children going to the school have stopped attending and teachers and parents protested against the landlord.
“We have been calling the Education department to look into the matter but they have stopped taking our calls,” said Talamba resident Masooma, who’s son Fahd went to the primary school for boys. Teachers at the school said that last month the landlord Azhar and several of his men turned them out of their class rooms and threatened that they should not return. “The next day the school was a cowshed. The Education Department has not taken any action yet,” said a teacher Ahmed.
According to residents, the encroachment had been easy because the school did not have any boundary wall and already lacked several basic facilities.
“There was no gate either, so the guard just sat outside the building. That was why Azhar and his men often let their animals graze in the school grounds. The children were banned from playing there,” Ghafoor said.
The Education Department refused to comment on the issue but school officials have said that they will begin protests if no action is taken.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2011.
COMMENTS (13)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
where is the AZAD ADLIA. oops they are busy playing politics.
these feudal land lords should be brought to justice ,revolution is only solution for the salvation of our nation .
The Indians worship the cow...why shouldn't we? I say we let the cows graze where ever they like. After all what is more important...the school or the cows? haha!
Please teach your subeditors how to edit. I'm not sure if this story is the same version used in your print edition, but if it is, Tribune's standards have dropped drastically.
@Shahid: A true Pakistani.... denial to the extreme!
There are cattle grazing in picture as schools boundary wall has collapsed. Nothing suggest it to be cattle shed. ET should check if their reporter is using the paper for settling personal scores!
I am sure the landlord is a pious Muslim!
NOT a Hindu or Jew! I know that hurts but this speaks a lot about what ills Pakistan is facing today, isn't it?
Come on guys, Muslims can't do such things. I am sure these land grabbers with or without beards are CIA/RAW/Mossad agents. Isn't the net result of all the blogs the same......conspiracy imbibed with paranoia?
if the landlored does it, it is nobody's business but his.
We want democracy with this kind of mindset. Musharraf is the solution of people like these.
@farhan aziz:
no anchor or reporter or journalist has the courage to do reports exposing the illegal land grabs of the religious fanatics.the fundoos think that their beards are a license for illegal qabza of property.they think that just because someone is religious that gives him the right to forcefully take over the property of others and our govt and agencies are too scared of the suicide bombers to do anything about this.
just heartbreaking to see this happening.Articles should also be done on the madrassas built illegally on occupied land.The media exposes the land grabbers all the time but never does a story on the bearded land mafia which has made this a dhanda that they occupy by force any piece of land,build a minar on it and claim that now it is holy land.the same thing was done by the islamic fascists at lal masjid and when the govt. rightly tried to assert the state's will,the religious terrorists opened fire and the media fully supported the terrorists holed up inside. all such illegally built mosques and madrassas should be immediately brought down and the writ of the state restored. Just because you have a beard doesn't give you the right to grab someone else's land.
Several new housing schemes in Lahore have cattle grazing all over.