Author: Staff Report
Publication: Daily Times
Date: October 30, 2003
URL: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_31-10-2003_pg7_43
The Peshawar Cantonment Board (PCB)
has served a notice on the Hindu minority members to vacate houses occupied
by them for 130 years in cantonment areas.
The notice, Hindu leader Ram Lal
told Daily Times on Thursday, was issued last Wednesday and gave the Kali
Bari residents Friday (today) to vacate around 70 homes and a Hindu temple.
However, a meeting between the Hindu
community leaders and the board authorities on Thursday gave the minority
one month to discuss the issue after Eid.
The PCB has accused the inhabitants
of occupying the area "illegally" and encroaching on government land. The
notice was a threat that force would be used if the inhabitants did not
meet the deadline.
Mr Lal denied the CBP charges and
said they had valid papers to prove the land was not PCB's property. "This
property is owned by Mahar Chand Khanna. He (Khanna) purchased this property
in the 18th century and the temple was built in 1861," Mr Lal said. "We
are worried and do not know where to go if the authorities use force,"
Aslam Siraj, a Muslim living in the Hindu-dominated areas, told Daily Times.
The inhabitants approached the federal government through minority member
of the National Assembly Gayan Singh to take up the matter at top government
level.
Meanwhile, the authorities in Islamabad
have assured the Hindus that justice will be done.
