MANSEHRA: The residents of the remote Ogra area, where land was being acquired by the district administration for graveyards meant for the burial of people from the Mansehra city’s four urban union councils, have refused to sell their land at any cost.

“If the district administration is determined to acquire our agricultural land, the only sources of our livelihood, it should first bury us here and then bring the bodies from the city,” Amjad Iqbal, a landowner whose land is being acquired for the proposed graveyard, told reporters.

The residents gathered at the site where the district administration had invoked Section IV of the Land Acquisition Act to acquire more than 41 kanal land.

“The district administration is not only forcibly taking away our agricultural land, but is also doing injustice to the people of the city’s four urban union councils, as transporting bodies to this remote location is difficult because of the rugged terrain,” another landowner, Raheem Shah, said.

He said that after the district administration invoked Section IV of the Land Acquisition Act, the landowners met former deputy commissioner Khalid Iqbal and the incumbent deputy commissioner Mian Behzad Adil and both assured them that their agricultural land would not be acquired.

“The tehsil municipal officer of Mansehra is also aware of the situation, yet the authorities are proceeding with the acquisition of our land for graveyards,” another resident, Saleem Shah, said.

They have appealed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi to de-notify the land acquisition orders.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had allocated Rs200 million in 2016 for the purchase of land for graveyards for the people of Mansehra’s four urban union councils, as residents had long been facing a shortage of burial space.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has announced that it will raise the matter in the National Assembly and its relevant standing committee.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2026