Islamabad: CDA, admin pull down illegal tents near Rawal Lake

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Fazal Sher

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration, Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) on Monday cracked down on illegal tents put up over the 170 kanals government land near Rawal Lake.

As the crackdown got underway, the tent occupants threw stones at the anti-encroachment personnel. This left five CDA officials wounded. They were shifted to the CDA Hospital where their condition is stated to be stable.

Police arrested four alleged attackers. A CDA official said land vacation notices had been issued to the encroachers, mostly Christians, in the past but they all fell on deaf ears.

“We’d been left with no choice but to spring up into action against them,” he said.

He accused the illegal land occupants of damaging the main waterline from Rawal Dam to Rawalpindi.

The official said around 250 officials of the CDA Enforcement Wing accompanied with over 200 policemen carried out the anti-encroachment operation.

According to him, SSP, Islamabad, Tahir Alam Khan, the CDA Enforcement director and senior WASA officials monitored the operation during which most of the 250 tents were pulled down.

He said government officials, politicians and the head of an international humanitarian agency supported the encroachers.

When contacted, CDA Enforcement Director Faiz Muhammad told Daily Times that the encroachers took the CDA’s repeated warnings to vacate land lightly, which prompted the crackdown.

He said most of the tents had been removed with the CDA securing land’s custody.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...09_pg11_11