RAWALPINDI, Dec 27: The tehsil municipal administration (TMA) is once again faced with the task of evicting milch animals from the city limits as thousands of cattle have staged a comeback.

The plan to get the herdsmen settled outside the city had been appreciated by people at large but it failed due to its mishandling by the municipal authorities. It was prepared in haste and executed hurriedly without looking into the issues involved therein and ignoring the buffaloes owners’ demands and problems. They were driven out and no facilities were provided to them in the new areas.

The areas where the cattle have been kept are Muslim Town, Dhoke Hassu, Dhoke Kashmirian, Javed Colony, Pirwadhai, Arian Muhallah and others.

The ongoing operation to compound the buffaloes and drive them out has also been stopped. The TMA is not even aware as how many of the animals have been brought back.

The tehsil chief officer, Aftab Chohan, told Dawn that the operation had been halted because the TMA staff was busy in the rescue operation in the blast area. He said it was difficult for them to judge as how many of the herdsmen had returned.

They fled when the operation was launched but came back again, he said. He said most of them had kept their animals in areas bordering the cantonment and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and crossed over to the other side when the TMA operation staff reached there.

“We are writing to the two bodies to declare their areas buffaloes-free zone,” Mr Chohan said.