SWAT: The elders of Badai and Serrai areas in Mankial valley here on Wednesday demanded an investigation into what they called the illegal and fraudulent transfer of their land in Bahrain tehsil of Swat.

Led by Malik Sheerin, Toti Gul, Abdul Jameed, Shah Gul and Charri Gul, the residents addressed a press conference in Mingora. They said that the joint land was owned by three tribes of Bahrain tehsil including Habibkhel, Inamkhel and Sulemankhel. They said that it was illegally transferred by some officials of the revenue department in 1988.

“Former revenue clerk Nadir Shah, a resident of Bahrain village, deceived the simple people of our areas and got their thumb impressions on a document. Since they were illiterate, they did not know on what documents they put their thumb impressions,” the elders said and added that later they learnt that the land owned by the three tribes was illegally transferred to the clerk.

They said that the land under Khasra numbers 2178, 2179 and 2188, which belonged to the tribes of Badai and Serai areas, was transferred and illegally to Nadir Shah, his relatives and other officials of the revenue department.

They said when they learnt about the fraud, they approached higher authorities and also moved court against the clerk. “When we filed a case in the court against the clerk, he started threatening us,” they said, asking the government to provide protection to them against him and his accomplices.

The elders said that the court was also situated in Bahrain town and when they visited the court for hearing Nadar Shah and his accomplices created a hurdle to them and also threatened them. “We need not only protection from them but also demand of the government to vacate our land from his family,” they added.

They said that they would never tolerate anyone, who tried to illegally capture their collective land and would resist the move. They appealed to chief minister and Malakand commissioner and DIG to initiate a high level inquiry into the issue and retrieve their land from the occupants after conducting the probe.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2021