LAKKI MARWAT: The district administration removed encroachments from the graveyard of militancy-hit Shah Hasankhel village during a special operation here on Tuesday.

Assistant commissioner Eid Nawaz Sherani supervised the daylong operation as land grabbers failed to remove encroachments on their own despite repeated notices.

Over 100 people were killed in a suicide car bomb explosion during a volleyball match in January 2010 in Shah Hasankhel village and its graveyard had been named as `Shuhada Qabristan` after the incident.

The employees of tehsil municipal administration and revenue department removed permanent structures and garbage dumps from the graveyard with the help of heavy machinery. Mr Sherani said that the administration had cleared the graveyard land from all sorts of encroachments.

`The revenue officials have fixed limits of the burial place and no one will be allowed to occupy graveyards or state land in future,` he said.

Meanwhile, around 6,000 saplings were planted under `Clean and Green Pakistan` campaign in remote Mastikhel area of Betani tribal subdivision on Tuesday.

Deputy commissioner Jehangir Azam Wazir and assistant commissioner Noman Ali Shah inaugurated the campaign. They along with tribal chiefs, school students, teachers and employees of local administration took part in the plantation activity.

On this occasion, Mr Wazir said that forest cover would be increased in the tribal subdivision. He said that the administration would focus on launching plantation activities in the area so as to educate tribesmen about the usefulness of forests.

ROAD IN BAD SHAPE: The elders and councillors of rural localities have urged the government to provide funds for the repair and rehabilitation of damaged Mela ShabkhelZangikhel road.

Tall(ing to mediapersons here, they said that the road linlced several villages and hamlets with Lakki city. They said that several portions of the road had been washed away by flashfloods in the past.

`A portion of the road near Mela Shabkhel is in bad condition causing inconvenience to the commuters,` they said and demanded of the provincial government to release funds for maintenance of such link roads in the district.

They urged health minister Hisham Inamullah and MPA Munawar Khan to get sanctioned special funds for repair of the damaged roads.