LAHORE: The land grabbers of Pakpattan opened fire on the team of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) while the team was sealing the properties under illegal possession of locals whereas, the local police have registered an FIR against the accused and started investigations, Pakistan Today learned here on Monday.
An ETPB official told this scribe, “A large piece of land in Pakpattan is under illegal possession of locals who have constructed houses and shops there. The team planned to take action against the occupants but when they reached the site and started sealing the shops and houses, a group of people opened fire and took the team into their custody for almost five hours. Later, the team called the police who rescued them from the angry people.”
The official further told that police had registered an FIR; however, the FIR was registered against only one person named Rana Ahsan Khan, a copy of which available with Pakistan Today.
It was further learnt that newly appointed ETPB Chairman Dr Amir Ahmed had issued strict orders to vacate illegally possessed properties owned by ETPB to all administrators of different zones in the country. Currently, the teams are collecting and making a database of all illegally possessed properties.
According to sources, “Most of the teams are working actively against the illegal occupants after the orders of the newly appointed chairman. But on the other hand, the same team is also harassing innocent and poor people. Most of the officials in ETPB are corrupt and it is only with their consent that a large people have possessed the organisation’s properties illegally”.
While talking to Pakistan Today, ETPB Spokesperson Amir Hashmi told this scribe, “The mentioned incident happened when our teams were doing their work. However, despite this attempt, our teams are ready to do their work again”.