40,000 acres of govt land remains usurped in Jawzjan

SHIBERGHAN (Pajhwok): Local officials say 400 acres of land has been recovered from its grabbers in northern Jawzjan province where 40,000 acres of land remains usurped.

Sayed Mohammad Jafar Mesbah, the justice department head, during an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News said, “We were able to recover 400 acres of land from grabbers last year.”

He said that they were currently working on recovering 80 acres of land on the outskirts of Shiberghan city, the provincial capital.

“We also face problems in recovering state’s properties from grabbers, the life of our officers is under serious threat, they are warned daily by the grabbers, no other organs, particularly police, support us in this regard,” he said.

About the people involved in the land grabbing, he said, “They are different people, sometimes they cannot be identified.”

Mesbah said insecurity was also a problem for their activities and they were unable to deal with all land grabbing cases.

“What is important is our decision, we stand firmly against grabbers and will not retreat from our job,” he said.

He said that over 40,000 acres of the state land was still in control of grabbers, which had been usurped during the last two decades.

Mds/ma