KOHAT: The owners of a 13-kanal prime land near the Rawalpindi interchange in Ghulam Banda area of Togh Bala on Friday clashed with land grabbers, who they alleged, wanted to establish an illegal housing scheme without making any payments to them.

Talking to Dawn, elders Haji Sahib Gul, Haji Noor Habibullah and Khwaja Noor demanded action against the land grabbers.

They said the grabbers accompanied by armed gangsters wanted to occupy their land worth millions of rupees, and that they were helpless against them.

They said illegal business of distribution of plots was going on unchecked, and warned the investors against purchasing plots there because the illegal project was underway without obtaining NOC from the tehsil municipal administration and other relevant government departments.

They said not a single penny was paid to them nor was permission sought from them for the housing project.

They said an 11,000KV high tension line passing over the area was being removed.

They asked the Kohat division commissioner, the deputy commissioner and the revenue department to intervene and vacate their land of illegal occupation.

OPERATIONS AGAINST CRIMINALS: The police during search and strike operations, snap checking and raids arrested 711 criminals wanted in terrorism, kidnappings, murder, extortion, robbery and other heinous cases this year.

During a press briefing, district police officer Javed Iqbal said the operations were carried out under the National Action Plan.

He said non-custom paid vehicles and goods worth billions of rupees were recovered and handed over to the customs authorities.

He said 395 drug dealers were arrested and over 1,114 kilogrammes of hashish, 8.522kg opium, 28kg heroin, three kilogrammes of ice and 304 bottles of liquor were seized, and 370 cases were registered.

Mr Iqbal said 210 accused were arrested and 19 grenades, a rocket launcher, an LMG gun, a stain gun, two grenade launchers, 191 Kalashnikovs, 15 Kalakovs, 74 rifles, 302 shotguns, 1,811 pistols and 105,054 rounds of different bores were recovered from them.

He said 57 car-lifters were held and 28 stolen vehicles recovered, besides 22 extortionists were arrested. He said the police arrested 97 anti-social elements and recovered counterfeit currency and stake money from them.

WOMEN REGISTRATION: The UN Women under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Merged Districts Support Programme (KPMDSP) has successfully completed registration of 1,784 women from Orakzai to acquire Smart National Identity Cards (SNICs) from Nadra.

A statement issued on Friday said the SNIC holders would became entitled to the government’s Sehat Sahulat and Ehsaas Cash programmes and other humanitarian assistance.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2020