Grabbed lands restitution pave way for economic development: Umari

FAIZABAD (Pajhwok): Senior acting government officials during their trip to northeastern Badakhshan province have stressed over the recovery of all grabbed lands and termed land grabbing main hurdle in the way of agriculture, livestock and economic development.

Acting Agriculture Minister Mawlavi Attaullah Umari during a meeting at the Governor House said thousands acres of grabbed land had been recovered since the launch of drive in this regard by the leadership of the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ (IEA).

“After the end of the foreign occupation, we are in the process of winning against the internal occupiers (land usurpers) who have usurped our lands without any considering its religious aspect and without considering what is halal and haram, and the country's lands are like auctioned among the powerful individuals and some places have been usurped by the common people,” he said.

Umari said the recovery of these lands has been a great blessing for the suffering people of Afghanistan.

The acting agriculture minister said that Afghanistan is an agriculture country but most lands were usurped by powerful individuals and common people, three years ago people fought and killed each other’s on these grabbed lands.

Umari said: “from industrial perspective we are located at the transit crossroads of Central Asia, but unfortunately, our young people migrated to foreign countries for a bite of bread, our traders look for goods and food to foreign countries, and our people live in economic poverty.”

He asked officials and people to fully cooperate with the technical committee in the province to stop further land grabbing in the province.

Noor-ul-Haq Anwari, the administrative affairs head, said the IEA fought against issues such as poppy cultivation, production and drug trafficking in which the previous government had failed.

He said the IEA fought against the mafia of below the standard food and drug import and a separate institution would be established to fight this phenomenon.

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