F.P. Report
SWABI: The Hund village jirga announced that if Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government wanted to force the residents to vacate their houses the law enforcing agencies have to pass over their dead bodies of the locals. The tense jirga meeting was convened after the issuing of one month notice to 1200 houses of the village by Hund Museum incharge on the directive of provincial Directorate of Archaeology and Museums.
Situated on the right edge of the Indus River, Hund is about 15 kilometers upstream of historic Attock Fort and at a distance of about 80 kilometers to the east of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital, Peshawar. Hund is one of the rich archaeological sites in the province and the officials of directorate said that the leading archaeologists have opined that the entire Hund village had been erected on the site where they need excavation.
They said that establishment of Hund Museum and the already conducted various excavations showed that the area was highly importance for the excavation and digging out the information about ancient life. When the jirga started people, including thousands charged youngsters have started pouring to the jirga venue, held at main hujra (common guest house) of the village, located at the centre of the population.
The percipients vowed that they would fight for their rights and what had demanded by the directorate would never by fulfilled because their ancestors had built their houses on their own land, living there several generations had passed and now the government woke up and told them to vacate their houses. The situation was tense and members of the jirga supported by the whole village declared that they would resist the government move because what would be their fate and where they would go.
Israr Khan, one of the members of the Jirga said that the unanimously decision adopted by members of the jirga would be follow by the people and there was complete unity in the ranks of the people.
Abdul Latif another member and representative of local government said that they would fight for their rights on all fronts and the government should reconsider.
Similar views were expressed by various other members of the jirga and locals who opposed the government decision and warned to stay away from the vacation of the area and if the government moves ahead they would fight with complete determination. When contacted Asad Qaisar, speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly said that the Hund village included in the constituency from where he had won in election 2013 and he had already talked with Chief Secretary and met also the members of the jirga.
He said that he had developed an understanding with members of the jirega but there were no comment from members of the jirga about their meeting with him. He called for peaceful settlement and assured that the government would use all available sources to resolve the issue peacefully.
However, analysts said that if the government moves ahead for forceful vacation of the people then the PTI position in the area would be at stake.
They said that it was a big issue for the ruling party and it was not yet clear that how the PTI leaders would tackle it. They demanded that there was need of great care to avoid any untoward incident.
