HARIPUR: The local administration removed a sword-wielding horseman monument from the Siddique-i-Akbar Chowk here on Saturday.

The eight feet tall metal structure was put up in Sept 2017 as part of the city’s beautification plan.

The structure with its cemented base cost around Rs2.5 million, official sources told Dawn.

They insisted that the monument was removed after religious parties objected to its installation at the intersection named after first caliph of Islam Hazrat Abdul Bakar (RA).

The sources claimed that the horseman would be installedclose to a tank placed half a furlong away in the east on the GT Road. They said a new monument carrying the name of Islam’s first caliph would be installed at the Siddique-i-Akbar Chowk.

Assistant commissioner (headquarters) Rao Hashim Azeem and TMA official Javed Khan didn’t respond to the calls and text messages of Dawn.

Haripur was founded in 1822-23 by the then governor of Hazara, Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa. It happened four years after Sikhs annexed Kashmir and its gateway with the valley of Hazara after facing tough resistance from the local tribes.

The Sikh governor, according to the Hazara Gazetteer 1883-84, founded Haripur or (Hari’s town) on the advice of Mukadam Musharraf, the chief of local Gujjar tribe, to maintain the first Sikh conquest of the area. It was used as the Sikh base for further advances and operations and was considered to be a key place of defence for them in Hazara region.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2022