SWABI: A jirga on Sunday warned the government not to go ahead with its plan of evicting inmates of over 1,200 houses in the archaeologically-rich Hund village of Swabi district.

The jirga was convened after the issuance of eviction notice to owners of 1,200 houses of the village by Hund Museum in-charge a month ago on the directive of provincial directorate of archaeology and museums.

Officials of the directorate quote leading archaeologists as saying that the entire Hund village has been erected on the site where they need excavations thus, the eviction orders to the villagers.

A large number of charged youth also attended the jirga held at the main hujra (common guest house) of the village.

The participants vowed that they would fight for their rights as their ancestors had been living in the village for several generations, but now the government wanted to evict them from their own houses.

Israr Khan, a member of the jirga, said the decisions taken at the meeting would be binding on all the residents of the Hund village.

Abdul Latif, a local government representative, said they would fight for the rights of the locals at all forums.

When contacted, Asad Qaisar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker, said he had already talked with the chief secretary, asking him to settle the issue in a peaceful manner.

Political analysts said if the government moved ahead for forcible eviction of the people from their houses then the PTI position in the area would be at stake.

They said it was a big issue for the ruling party and it was not yet clear how the PTI leaders would tackle it.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2017