By Saman Husain
A large-scale demolition drive at Khyber Pass near Civil Lines Saturday led to over 250 houses being razed and hundreds of residents being displaced.
The operation was carried out under heavy police deployment in the early hours of Saturday. A senior government official said: “On Saturday, 15 acres of around 32 acres of land which belongs to the L&DO (Land and Development Office) were cleared; the remaining will be cleared later.”
At the site, the air was thick with dust as machinery tore down buildings. Several residents were seen sitting amid the rubble that was once their home.
Residents claimed police personnel were deployed overnight and the area was barricaded, restricting entry for outsiders and preventing them from leaving. “How will we go search for houses if they do not let us leave the premises?” questioned Roop Chand. He claimed he is the fourth-generation member of his family living in the area.
Also among the displaced was 26-year-old Imran Khan, who, along with his 60-year-old grandmother, was seen climbing through the boundaries to access their home. “This is the fifth generation of my family living here. We are a family of six, and everything has been destroyed,” said Khan, a relationship manager at HDFC Bank.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
