PESHAWAR: A number of plot owners of Shaikh Yaseen Town have blamed the officials of DHA, Peshawar, for blocking entry point of the town and demanded of Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif to take notice of the violation of rights of thousands of people.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Friday, members of a joint action committee said that several people had built houses in Shaikh Yaseen Town, but they were unable to enter the town’s premises any longer because DHA had blocked its entry point.

One Hamza Khan said that the town had 1,200 kanals where thousands of people, especially government employees, had bought plots and wanted to build houses. Flanked by landowners Abdul Salam and Ahmed Jan, the allottees’ representative Younus Khan and Mr Hamza said that they had built the link road to the town and bought the land legally where former owners were also alive, but even then DHA had created problems for them.

Mr Hamza alleged that DHA wanted to expand its plan and force owners of the surrounding land properties to sell out their land at a throwaway price to it.

He said that work on the town had been initiated after obtaining NOC from the Peshawar Development Authority and the provincial government was witness to the entire process. He demanded of the corps commander, Peshawar, and the COAS to take notice of the issue and order opening of the road.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2016