Gujjars seek help against eviction

CHITRAL, June 4: The members of the Gujjar ethnic community have demanded of the government to take notice of their forced eviction from Jughur village. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, the leaders of the community including Sabir, Abdul Jalil and Rahmat said their forefathers had purchased agricultural land from the locals in Jughur village and they had settled there. They said now the local people were hell-bent on their eviction from the area. They argued that the permanent address of the people had been recorded as village Jughur in their computerized national identity cards while the electoral lists of the area contained their names as well since the independence of the country. They said the locals wanted to evict them on the ground that they were keeping goats in a large number and graze them in the local pasture which caused floods during torrential rains. They reiterated that the raring of goats was their sole source of sustenance which they cannot abandon.–Zahiruddin]]>