Irshadullah Khan
BOONI (May 21): People of Booni have condemned the district administration and police of Upper Chitral for registering an FIR against peaceful protesters and charging them with rioting for demanding protection to their land from river erosion caused by negligence of the NHA.
The protesters had said that during blasting of the mountains by the National Highway Authority (NHA) while constructing the Chitral-Mastuj road, boulders and debris fell into the river and blocked its way. As the volume of the water increased, the river started eroding land of the people of Booni on the left bank of the river. Despite repeated demands by the affected people, the NHA did not remove the debris.
Representatives of the local people told ChitralToday that they held a peaceful protest in Booni on May 18 calling upon the district administration and NHA to remove the debris from the river. Later, at a meeting held at the DC office, the NHA and local administration officers assured representatives of the people that the debris would be cleared from the river. they also asked the locals to nominate their representatives to monitor the work.
The NHA then deployed machinery to remove and shift the debris from the river. However, the police registered the FIR against the locals for holding the protest on May 18.
On the other hand, Fazlur Rehman, Pervez Lal, Javed Khan and others said instead of ensuring the protection of Booni from river erosion by directing the NHA to remove the debris before the start of the summer season, the district administration got an FIR registered against them for holding a peaceful protest demonstration.
They said that after establishment of Upper Chitral as a new district, the locals were hopeful that their issues would be resolved at their doorsteps. But the administration and police officers of the district have failed to resolve public issues and were misusing their authority by lodging FIRs against peaceful protesters to intimidate them.
The FIR was registered under section 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 349 (wrongful restraint) of Pakistan Penal Code against Fazlur Rehman, Muhammad Javed, Muhammad Pervez, Azam Manager and 80 to 90 unidentified protesters.
According to the FIR, the protesters gathered at Booni Chowk on May 18 and blocked the road for traffic and chanted slogans against the NHA. According to the protesters, their land was at the danger of erosion after NHA dumped debris into the river. The protesters demanded that the NHA should be stopped from this activity to protect their properties.
According to the FIR, Mr Javed tried to incite the protesters by referring to the recent mass public protest against the government in Azad Kashmir and said 1,000 people succeeded to get their demands accepted. The FIR said this act of the protesters was liable for prosecution under the sections of the law included in the FIR.
The representatives of the local people today announced that a public demonstration would soon be organized against the failure of the administration to secure Booni from river erosion.
