Curbing illegal burials: Steps to protect Chowkandi

Karachi Commissioner calls for 24-hour patrolling at Chowkandi graveyard

KARACHI: Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui has called for 24-hour patrolling at Chowkandi graveyard, a national heritage, to prevent illegal burials and encroachments. The commissioner, presiding over the second meeting regarding protection to heritage sites, also stressed the need for speeding up steps for the construction of a boundary wall and setting up of watchmen’s posts to protect it from land grabbers. He said that Chowkandi graveyard is on Unesco’s waiting heritage list, therefore, effective steps are needed to preserve this heritage site of international importance. He expressed concern that if prompt measures are not taken, rapidly growing encroachments around the graveyard might endanger this heritage site.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2014.