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| October 06, 2006 | Friday | Ramazan 12, 1427 |
Poor tenants behind bars for seeking quake compensation
BALAKOT, Oct 5: Eight tenants hailing from Khanian, a remote locality in Kaghan valley, have landed in Mansehra jail for demanding compensation for their houses destroyed in October 2005 earthquake, the relatives of jailed men told this scribe during a visit to a makeshift shelter abode of five families in Shohal Najaf Khan some 7km downwards from here.
These people were arrested on charges of disrupting law and order when they took part in a joint protest against the denial of their rights.
After they remained in jail for well over a month, the relatives of incarcerated men succeeded in getting bail from court for them but the influential perpetrators ensured they do not leave the prison.
The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) had placed the condition on the tenants to get their names endorsed by Kaghan union council, which was denied by the Sayeds of Kaghan, the land owners, who demanded half of the compensation amount for themselves in lieu of the No Objection Certificate.
Manzoor (27), one of the victims said the eight men including Zulfikar son of Ghulab, Malik Zaman s/o Ghulam, Malik s/o Zada, Mushtaq s/o Mir Alam, Ashraf s/o Taghi Khan were protesting against their landlord for disallowing them their rightful compensation for houses destroyed in the quake.
He said the men of powerful Sayeds, who dominated Kaghan union council, not only got them arrested but also fired some 200 gunshots to create scare and disperse the protesters forcefully in Khanian.
Bibi Irshad (35), another member of the tenants family, said they were given first instalment of Rs25,000 for erecting shelters for last winter but they were denied the next instalment of Rs75,000 as the owners of the land demanded half of the amount, which they refused and decided to take out protest procession.
These few families of tenants have come back to Shohal due to fear of the influential people.
Losing hope that they will ever be able to reconstruct houses for themselves on the land they tilled so far, they have now decided to stay back and have purchased a small piece of land to make their makeshift abodes.
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