Fact-check: Letter about military plans to acquire land in Haripur is real

An alleged letter circulating on social media suggests that the Pakistan military intends to acquire nearly 4,000 kanals of land in the Haripur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for defence purposes. 

Other social media users have questioned the authenticity of the letter and its contents.

The claim is true; the letter is indeed authentic.

Claim

Last month, several online users shared a letter dated July 10, written by the Military Estate Officer in Abbottabad Cantt to the deputy commissioner (DC) in Haripur district, KP.

“It is apprised that the Army authorities intend to acquire a chunk of land measuring 3,481 kanals and 17 marlas situated at village Kenthla and Kot Jandan, tehsil Khanpur, district Haripur for defense purposes,” the letter reads.

It further directs the DC of Haripur to instruct revenue officials to prepare and furnish relevant documents such as land records, field books, prices of the villages within the said area, estimated cost of the land, fruit trees, and built-up property.

Some social media users questioned whether the letter was real, as did some journalists.

Fact

Two government officials familiar with the development have confirmed the letter’s authenticity.

Ijaz Khan Jadoon, the additional assistant commissioner revenue in Haripur, told Geo Fact Check that his office did receive the letter.

He then claimed that some people had wanted to build housing societies on the said land, but since the proposed army headquarters is situated next to it thus a letter of intent was issued to acquire the land “for security reasons”.

“There will be a complete process of [land] acquisition that will take six to 12 months,” he said, adding that the land was located behind Islamabad’s Margalla hills.

Khanzada Khan, a tehsildar in Khanpur’s tehsil of Haripur district, whose signature is on the letter, also confirmed its authenticity to Geo Fact Check. He added that the land in question was private land.

However, DC Haripur did not reply to repeated requests for comments.

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