True to its reputation, Pakistan’s Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) is once again trying to forcibly occupy a prime land which has been given on lease to Teerath Singh, a Sikh resident of Nankana Sahib.
According to highly places intelligence sources, the officials of ETPB in connivance with local police built the walls and laid the roof on the plot which was on lease with Teerath Singh.
ETPB’s action evoked sharp protests from the Sikh community of Nankana Sahib which gathered in front of the office of ETPB and staged a demonstration. According to a photograph that is viral on the net, Pakistan’s hardliner Sikh leader Gopal Singh Chawla is seen leading the Sikh’s protest. Sources informed that ETPB had earlier been forcibly occupying the gurdwara properties and selling them to the land grabbers or constructing residential colonies as it constructed Defense Housing Colony in Lahore.
Sources informed that Teerath Singh had taken the land on lease in 2005 but with the passage of time and development of Nankana Sahib, the said property became a prime property attracting the land sharks to occupy the same and give them on lease to their favorites.
ETPB first tried to construct a mosque on Teerath Singh’s leased property but it failed to do so under the pressure of local Sikhs and a possible clash between the Sikh and Muslim community of Nankana Sahib. However, a couple of days ago, in an overnight operation, ETPB officials and local police officials constructed the walls and also laid the roof to claim its possession.
Sikhs of Nankana Sahib held a meeting with ETPB's chairman Aamer Ahmad who reportedly denied listening to the Sikh representatives and instead sided with the persons who allegedly grabbed Teerath Singh’s leased property.
The police have also denied registering the FIR owing to one or other reason. In the past ETPB’s former chairman Frooqul Saddiq was accused of grabbing gurdwara properties and selling them at heavy price.
