QUETTA, July 21: City Nazim Mohammad Rahim Kakar said on Monday that Frontier Corps men had moved into the Youth Hostel with the district administration’s permission temporarily.
“FC troops did not forcibly occupy the hostel,” he told Dawn and added that all formalities were fulfilled by the district government as advised by the Youth Hostel officials.
He said “only two rooms” were under the use of FC officials while the rest of the troops had erected tents outside it.
He said he had requested the hostel’s officials in writing that some rooms should be allowed to the FC officers on a temporary basis as the paramilitary force was deployed in the city for maintaining law and order in the provincial capital.
The Nazim said he had told the hostel officials that the city government would pay the rent of the rooms.
He said the FC troops would stay in the hostel until they were were performing their duties in the city.
He said the city government had provided accommodation to FC men in different areas in the larger interest of the people as the force was helping the administration and police in protecting the citizens after the attack on an Imambargah that claimed over 50 lives.
He said the district government or the FC had no plan to takeover the hostel for ever.
The FC, Balochistan, confirmed that its officials and troops were staying in some rooms of the hostel temporarily.
The troops were living in tents outside the hostel and only a few rooms were under use of officials commanding the men who were called out by the district administration for maintaining law and order, Col Shahbaz of the FC told Dawn on Monday.
He said the district government had allowed the FC to stay in the empty hostel till normalcy was restored in the provincial capital.
“We have no intention to occupy the hostel for ever. The provincial government has handed over the city to the Frontier Corps for ensuring peace and order,” he said.
He denied that the FC had taken over the hostel forcibly and said the city government had allowed its men to stay there until they were called back.
He said the FC men needed a place to stay as they were patrolling the city round the clock.
He said that FC troops and officials performing their duties with the civil administration were also staying in other government buildings.
Provincial Sports Minister Mohammad Younus Changezi said the Balochistan Sports Board had also provided its football stadium, squash complex and other buildings to FC temporarily.
They would vacate all the buildings soon as normalcy was returning to the provincial capital, he said.
Sources said most of the rooms in the hostel were empty and they were only used when national or provincial sports events were held here.