CHITRAL: Tajir Union, Chitral, president Habib Hussain Mughal has warned the government that the traders will offer full resistance to the operation against the encroachments in old portion of Chitral bazaar as it was based on bad intentions.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he alleged that the newly-posted Chitral deputy commissioner Osama Ahmed Warraich was creating law and order situation for the government by announcing to raze to ground over 2,000 shops in the bazaar.

He said that the deputy commissioner had no legal or moral ground to take the action as he had failed to prove that the shop keepers had encroached upon the state land to construct shops.

Mr Mughal said that the present bazaar road was widened in 1982 for which the traders had surrendered part of their shops which could be checked from the records of communication and works department.

The union president said that the officer was bent on destroying their shops without showing them any proof. He said that they would never allow such an unjust anti-encroachment operation. He demanded of the provincial government to stop the deputy commissioner from starting the anti-encroachment drive and take action against him.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2015