PESHAWAR: In a major anti-encroachment drive, the district administration and the Irrigation Department, with the support of the police, demolished over 1,000 shops, kiosks, shacks and other illegal structures in the Afghan refugees-dominated Board Bazaar yesterday.
Stiff resistance by the traders and shopkeepers proved futile before the well-equipped and heavily-guarded authorities, who used heavy machinery to demolish the encroachments.
It was part of the government’s drive to beautify the provincial metropolis and a green belt would be established on the site. The Irrigation Department officials, on the other hand, said that the constructions were removed for re-designing of the canal passing under the shops and shacks.
The authorities have already made several attempts during the last several years to demolish the shops, which are rebuilt after each drive. Fires have also broken out in the bazaar and gutted most of the shops, only for them to be remade later.
Afghan rocket attack kills five
Kabul: At least five children were killed yesterday when a rocket fired by Taliban militants hit a house in northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province.
Police sources said that fierce clashes erupted between Taliban militants and the government security forces, adding that the Taliban militants used rockets to attack the security forces.
Separately, insurgents attacked a police vehicle, killing the police chief of the Sher Ahmad district and four other policemen.
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