HARIPUR: Owners of the land acquired for construction of the Hazara Motorway have expressed concern about delay in payment of compensation.

Talking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, residents of Kholiyan and the adjoining villages said the government had acquired their land for the motorway project in 2017. They lamented that they were yet to be paid compensation even after lapse of four years.

Javed Khan, a landowner, pointed out that over two dozen people were awaiting compensation only in his Kholiyan Bala village. He said the poor people were being treated indifferently by the National Highway Authority and the district administration.

Another landowner said they had made frequent visits to the NHA and district administration offices, and also lodged complaints on the citizens’ portal, but they were told the payment was under process.

When contacted, additional deputy commissioner Mussarat Zaman told Dawn that the establishment department had earlier notified the Ghazi assistant commissioner as the land acquisition collector (LAC), but after his transfer the notification of new LAC was yet to be made. He expressed the hope that a notification to this effect would be made within next few days in order to pay compensation to the affected landowners.

COMMITS SUICIDE: A teenage boy committed suicide in a village of Nara Amazai union council on Tuesday evening, the police said.

They quoted witnesses as saying that Hamza Khan, 16, went to the roof of a mosque a few minutes before Iftar, and shot himself with a pistol. The villagers rushed him to Ghazi Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, where he succumbed to a head injury.

Meanwhile, an Afghan was killed in a targeted attack during Trahveeh prayers in Khalabat Township on Tuesday night.

Police said the motive behind the murder was a blood feud. They said Haji Sakhi Mohammad, 60, was offering Trahveeh prayers at a mosque in Mohallah Kheewa, when two motorcyclists targeted him from a window of the mosque, killing him on the spot.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2022