PESHAWAR, Jan 26: More than 550 trees on land owned by the Small Industrial Development Board (SIDB), NWFP, in Charsadda, have been illegally felled with police paying no heed to the board's requests for registration of an FIR or initiating an inquiry, official sources said.

The culprits involved in the illegal cutting of some 560 eucalyptus and 12 poplar trees on the official land, reserved for establishing small industrial estate in Charsadda, are at large.

"Police have kept quiet and are not registering the FIR because of involvement of certain influential people with strong political connections," said a senior officer of the provincial government.

An area of 30 acres had been acquired in early 1990s from Nisar Mohammed Khan, a well-known political figure of Charsadda district currently associated with the ruling PML, for the establishment of a small industrial estate.

The land could not be utilized for the purpose because the estate project was considered non-viable. The SIDB had deputed a watchman to guard its assets, including hundreds of trees and electricity distribution network developed at a cost of Rs7.3 million.

The SIDB, after holding an internal inquiry into the matter, moved the superintendent of police, Charsadda, to register an FIR against the watchman and hold further investigations into the case, the sources said.

However, said the sources, the SIDB's requests went unnoticed. The industries department, NWFP, and the SIDB, according to the sources, appear to be clueless about the missing trees which entail a market value of more than Rs1 million.

"Being high in demand due to their use as raw material for manufacturing of match, Eucalyptus trees could have fetched a substantial amount for the SIDB," said an official.

"Nobody knows who is actually behind the tree theft as the inquiry officers appointed by the SIDB and the industries minister could not come up with clear findings to fix responsibility," said the official who holds an important position.

According to official sources, the provincial minister for industries, Malik Zafar-e-Azam, had appointed an inquiry officer from among the senior staff of the industries department on Oct 15 to probe the matter. However, the officer could not complete the task after the SIDB did not cooperate with him on the plea that it (the SIDB) was holding an internal inquiry on its own.

"The industries department's inquiry officer also visited the site of the missing trees on Oct 20, and interviewed SIDB's watchman deputed to guard the site," an official of the industries department told Dawn.

In his statement, the watchman said the trees were cut on the instructions of 'higher authorities' without specifying them, according to the sources. Later, the sources said, the watchman retracted his earlier statement.

On the basis of SIDB's internal inquiry, the watchman's services were terminated, though he could not be put behind bars because of police's reluctance to register a case against him.

"What else the SIDB could do with the watchman after he changed his statement more than once and the district police is unwilling to register an FIR against him," said an official.

Official quarters said the police was not registering the FIR because certain influential persons of the area were protecting the watchman. "The watchman alone could not remove such a large number of trees," said an official, adding that "he managed to accomplish the job at the behest of some influential people now protecting him."

The matter of missing trees, said the sources, was pending unresolved after the provincial minister for industries, too, did not show interest, ignoring his own instructions on the basis of which the industries department had appointed an inquiry officer to probe the matter. The sources said that the matter was likely to come under discussion in the forthcoming meeting of the SIDB's board of directors.