LASPUR: The district administration of Ghizer aided by police and local people demolished structures being constructed at Mulan Shal, the last settlement on Chitral side of Shandur, after declaring it an encroachment on their pasture on Tuesday.
However, the deputy commissioner of Upper Chitral on Wednesday visited the area where the residents informed him about the incident. They said they had settlement in the area for centuries and used the pasture in the summer.
The DC after checking the record also confirmed the ownership of Laspur villagers on the land. He asked the locals to rebuild the damaged walls and ordered security cover for them.
The villagers started reconstruction work and volunteers from Laspur were guarding the pasture. The villagers demanded legal action against the government officials from Ghizer.
According to an earlier video clip on social media, the assistant commissioner and DSP Gupis along with police personnel in uniform and others demolished under-construction walls being being in Maulan Shal. The people of Ghizer villages claimed that the area was located in their side and was their pasture.
It has been learnt that people from different villages of Laspur with the help of the wildlife department were constricting shelters for their cattle to protect them from wild animals such as wolves. The people of different villages in Laspur already had their makeshift shelters for their animals in the area for centuries. Residents of the villages in Laspur said it was an attack by people of Ghizer on their area aided by armed police.
In a statement, Dr Inayatullah Faizi, Shahabuddin Advocate, Nazim Muhammad Wazir Khan, Lt Sher Azam Khan, Subedar-Major Qalandar Shah of Laspur said that people from Gilgit-Baltistan side illegally demolished structures belonging to Balim and Broke villages. They said some elements in Gilgit-Baltistan had been involved in creating law and order situation in the area at the behest of RAW, the Indian intelligence agency.
They demanded that the government and security forces should take action against those involved in the demolition of the structures on Chitral side.
The structures were 800 years old.Thse were part 〽️ f 270 houses in the locality .