PUL-E-KHUMRI (SW) – Residents of Baghlan province claim an influential man has encroached upon thousands of acres of public and private land in the Kalan Guzur area of the province.
In conversation with Salam Watandar, the grieving citizens said they possess legal documents to their lands, but influential men have fabricated fake documents to assert their claims. They have also wrote a collectively signed paper to the Agha Khan Development Network in this regard.
The letter notes: “Ghulam Nazar, who is a regional commander and working at the AKDN, has encroached upon public property, private grazing land, mosques and other private properties, and has sold them to buy himself a home, garden and township”.
The letter further adds the suspect has also collected AFN 300 from hundreds of locals on the promise of buying land for them in Kunduz province, but actually embezzled all this money.
Ghulam Nazar introduces himself legal representative of some 22 individuals, and has bought 22 patches of land on the left side of Pul-e-Khumri River with the payment of AFN 2 million.
The locals lament that the prosecutor’s office in the province has turned blind eye towards their complaints of the suspect encroaching upon more than 200 acres of land.
Mohammad Ishaq and Bismillah, two such complainants, said Ghulam Nazar has encroached upon peoples’ properties in the Kalan Guzar area of the Doshi district and in the provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri, but corresponding public organizations are not helping reclaim it.
The suspect, Commander Ghulam Nazar, has discarded these allegations. He asserted all of these properties are his ancestral possession, and the courts have approved his claims over them.
Ramzani Rasteen, provincial head of the Arazi department in Baghlan, said in this regard this public property institution has referred some 2000 cases of land-grabbing to the provincial authority. He, however, said the central Arazi directorate has barred him from commenting on the case of Ghulam Nazar. A well-placed source, however, confirmed the land encroached by Ghulam Nazar are indeed public property.
On the other end, Raaz Mohammad Rasikh, head of the appellate court, asserted more time is needed to evaluate the peoples’ claims in this regard. He said if the people have proof about court employees asking for bribe, they should present proof, and the culprits would be punished.
ENDS
