Digging continues at the hundreds of years old site which was used as a graveyard in the 14th century when the Turkic people ruled Kashmir and Hazara. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA from Abbottabad, Dr Azhar Jadoon, has been accused of illegally occupying a graveyard and desecrating ancient graves in Dhamtor village on Nathiagali road.
At a news conference at the graveyard on Sunday, Dhamtor union council former naib nazim Pervez Khan claimed land measuring 63 kanals was earmarked for a graveyard. When the Turkic people were ruling Hazara and Kashmir in the 14th century, they buried their dead there.
Graves of that era are said to be still in existence. Some of those have caved due to lack of preservation, added the naib nazim. According to Khan, the land is marked as a graveyard in the revenue record of Patwar Circle.
Jadoon won NA-17 Abbottabad-I on a PTI ticket after defeating Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz’s senior leader Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan.
After winning the elections, he started using the land for meetings and last week, at a public gathering, announced he would construct a modern hospital on said piece of land, stated Khan.
Construction workers started levelling the land on Saturday, desecrating the graves, shared the former naib nazim. He pointed to remains of bodies which had been allegedly exposed during the excavation process.
Local elder Haji Muzaffar Khan maintained the land with ancient graves falls under the purview of The Antiquities Act 1975 and those violating it were punishable both under Islamic Law and the Criminal Procedures Code. Riasar Khan Jadoon, another local elder, threatened to use force to stop construction on the graveyard if the government failed to stop the MNA.
One of Jadoon’s associates, Dr Zaheer, told The Express Tribune the land which was being levelled has no graves.
MNA Jadoon brought the property from its owner a few years ago and was constructing a state-of-the-art hospital, said Zaheer. Turkic graves remained unharmed as they were far from the stretch of land which the hospital is going to be constructed on, he added.
Azhar Jadoon was not available for comments when contacted.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 28th, 2013.
COMMENTS (8)
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When the second generation dies no one visits graves of their elders. If the grave of some spiritual person regularly visited is a different story. Otherwise no harm in leveling the grave yard to utilize for some good work. Saudis leveled the grave of Hazrat Khadija for a library. If the graves are state of art they should be preserved as Chakri or Makli graveyards in Sind.
Height of cheap jounalism! A good news is being portrayed as the heinous act of the century.
What is wrong with levelling 600 years old graves and utilizing the land for making a hospital? Even our religion teaches us to level the graves to ground after some time.
How is this Land Grabbing??
Also on the same graveyard during previous government rule a BHU and School was constructed and no one said a single word.
I think he is doing a good job by building a hospital and not grabbing a land. Graves need to remain of mud otherwise the whole universe will become a graveyard and their hardly will be left place for living. Thus, the remains vanished with time. so it is a natural cycle.
LAND GRABBING? - Headline - please correct - your story even says he OWNS the piece of Land - the desecration and levelling is another story all together
He is building a hospital so that more people dont end up in graves. Everything is a news these days.Sick of all the hyper-hypercritical people around these days.
I thought it was un-islamic to have permanent grave yards/sites. Isn't the rule to bury the dead person and level the ground so that it returns to nature within a few years ? This is how the Saudi kings are buried. No one can go and cry over their graves as no one knows where these are.