RAWALPINDI: The district administration on Thursday suddenly stopped its crackdown on illegal occupants of the land of Damdama Temple after resentments by local politicians and traders.

The district administration and the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) led by Assistant Commissioner City Naeem Afzal reached Hamilton Road commonly called Dingi Kohi early in the morning to raze the 43 illegal shops on the temple land.

However, the shopkeepers resisted the operation. “Despite the resistance from the shopkeepers, the district administration had moved the machinery to demolish the shops. But all of a sudden the officials received directions from higher authorities of the district administration to stop the operation,” an official of the ETPB told Dawn.

As a face saving, he said, the district administration sealed the 43 shops and announced to postpone the operation for a few days.

The official said the two kanals and 14 marlas on the Hamilton Road belonged to the Hindu temple and the ETPB had allotted the upper storey of the temple building to some families for residential purposes. But the ground floor has been occupied by the land mafia.

He said in the past the ETPB had tried to clear the land but the police refused to help in removing the encroachments. He said on the directions of the Punjab government the ETPB had provided a list of 30 sites to the district administration to retrieve them from illegal occupants.

However, the operation to clear the temple land, which was started on Wednesday, ended on Thursday on the pressure of local politicians and traders, he claimed.

But Assistant Commissioner Naeem Afzal told Dawn that the shopkeepers had been given time to produce the record of shops.

“We sealed the shops and gave a day to the shopkeepers to present all the record available with them as they claimed that they owned the land and it was registered in their name by the revenue department,” she said.

She denied any political pressure and said the deputy commissioner had asked the traders to submit the land record by 9pm on Thursday otherwise the operation would be started.

She said the residences on the land of the temple were not illegal as the ETPB had leased it out to different people. However, she said, the district administration would provide them alternative accommodation on other properties of the ETPB.

When contacted, ETPB Deputy Administrator Mohammad Asif said the land was owned by the ETPB and it was occupied illegally by shopkeepers. He said the market value of the land was over Rs1 billion as it was located on the main road of Raja Bazaar.

He said the shopkeepers had prepared fake documents and the district administration would have to verify it from the land record of the revenue department and the ETPB.

Rawalpindi Traders Association President Sharjeel Mir termed the district administration’s action unnecessary. He said the administration had to issue a show-cause notice before the crackdown.

He said the shopkeepers had documents of registration of the land in their names and transfer letters issued by the revenue department.

“All traders led by Shahid Ghafoor Paracha and me requested the administration to give time to the shopkeepers till Saturday so that they could produce their documents,” he said.

Later, the traders’ associations of the city and cantonment areas held a meeting to chalk out a plan to deal with the crackdown.

They also decided to meet the deputy commissioner on Saturday morning.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2018