The growing lawlessness in Industrial Estate, Hayatabad, Peshawar, forcing the industrialists to close their units, rendering thousands of workers jobless. The largest industrial estate generating more than 50 percent revenue collected from the province is situated on border with tribal area of Khyber Agency.
Two armed groups have been fighting with each other for the last four days has turned the industrial estate into a battlefield. The industrialists of the estate were bringing the matter into the notice of the government demanding security for both their properties and labourers. However, no preventive measures were taken. In a daring incident, some miscreants during wee hours of Thursday even broke the boundary wall entered a match factory of the estate.
The industrialists in the wake of the incident held an emergency meeting at the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) with its President Haji Mohammad Asif in chair expressed concern over the incident. They once again demanded of both federal and provincial governments for enhancement of security measures in the industrial estate.
Addressing an emergency press conference, Sarhad Chamber President Haji Mohammad Asif called upon the government to arrange negotiations between both belligerent groups to resolve the matter through peaceful means or through the use of force to expel the miscreants from the area near the industrial estate.
Haji Mohammad Asif also called for deployment security forces to provide protection to industrialists, industrial units and labourers, working in the units of the estate.
He said the situation is grave and majority of the units had been closed due to the harassment created after the entry of the armed men to a factory in the area. He said that the remaining operational units are working under capacity as more than 50 labourers had left the estate to protect their lives.
Haji Mohammad Asif said that heavy exchange of fire was going on between both groups and the gunshots were even heard in the city. He said that some rocket bullets have even landed in the industrial estate and posh township of Hayatabad. He expressed the fears of fire eruption in case of hitting different chemicals used in the manufacturing units of the estate.
The Sarhad Cahmber chief also called for resolution of the matter on priority basis, saying it would not be resolved in short-term. He recalled the speech of the Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, which he made in the provincial assembly after taking the vote of confidence. However, he said that the people are still awaiting the implementation of the directives of the chief minister.
The president, Industrialists Association Peshawar (IAP), Nauman Wazir, said the two decisions were made in the meeting were immediate deployment of more than 2,000 personnel of Frontier Constabulary or Frontier Corps to keep day and night vigilance on the entry of miscreants to the estate. He also called for declaration of the estate a no battle zone for both groups.
Fazal Elahi Khan, vice president, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), who was also present on the occasion, said the battle between both rival groups had also stranded hundreds of Afghanistan-bound export goods depriving the country of the foreign exchange. Former Sarhad Chamber president Adeel Rauf said that they condemned the barging of miscreants into a factory and called for an end to occurrence of such kind of incident. He said that carrying business and running of industrial units in such a situation is difficult for them.
He also demanded resolution of the matter on priority basis; otherwise he warned that the industrialists would not hesitate from even closing all industrial units of the estate. He reiterated the long-standing demand of the construction of boundary wall around the industrial estate to prevent the entry of miscreants and unwanted elements and establishment of check-posts to man the entry points of the estate.