PESHAWAR, April 3: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the Peshawar district administration to begin a grand operation for removal of encroachments from local graveyards after giving land grabbers seven days to do so voluntarily.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Miftauddin Khan asked the administration to complete the operation within a month, saying the administration will be given freehand to revive historical graveyards in the city to their original shape.

It also directed the administration to get heavy machinery, including excavators, from the Peshawar Development Authority for the operation and that after demolition of illegal structures, encroachers not be allowed to remove the rubble, which should be used for constructing boundary walls around graveyards.The bench also issued directions to the government for appointing caretakers to each graveyard and to the subordinate judiciary not to provide any relief to encroachers.

The bench was hearing a set of writ petitions filed by locals and an organisation, Save Graveyards Movement, drawing its attention towards massive encroachment of land at Peshawar graveyards.

The court directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to make legislation over the issue of encroachments in graveyards within a month.

Peshawar district coordination officer Siraj Khan appeared before the bench and produced record regarding graveyards in the city. He said initially, a graveyard situated in the Compartment No 3, the most expensive land in the provincial capital, was spread over an area of around 90 kanals but later, around 78 kanals of that land was illegally occupied by people.

The DCO said illegal structures also included schools, tube wells and basic health units.

The chief justice expressed shock over massive encroachments in the graveyards and said the court was contemplating action against land grabbers but didn’t know the government itself was involved in land grab.

The chief justice observed that irrespective of the fact that graveyards belonged to any sect or any community, the court would not allow anyone to encroach even a single inch of land.

He said no one should be spared in the operation and if any official was found involved in favouring any encroacher, strict action would be taken against him. The court asked the DCO that if any of the encroacher tried to create law and order situation during the ant-encroachment drive, he should be arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

The Save Graveyards Movement has claimed that Rehman Baba graveyard, the largest in the city, was originally spread over an area of 198 acres but was later reduced to 74 acres only.

Similarly, one petitioner, Arsalan Pasha, said some land grabbers occupied his ancestral graveyard measuring over 12 kanals and four marlas of land at Beri Bagh area. He claimed that he had documents about the land ownership dating back to 1870.

Meanwhile, the same bench ordered the Charsadda DCO to produce record of graveyards in the district on May 3, the next date of hearing, for hearing into another petition filed by several inhabitants of Kangra village against encroachment.