Dera Ghazi (DG) Khan Deputy Commissioner (DC) and Border Military Police (BMP) Senior Commandant, Anwar Baryar, has called for an investigation into human-induced landslides in Fort Munro on the inter-provincial Dera-Quetta Road.
The landslides have purportedly been linked to a hotel mafia that sells highly-priced edibles and goods to travelers stuck in traffic jams on the blocked road. The subsequent closure of the road also results in a fruit and vegetable shortage and price hike in south Punjab.
DC Baryar explained the situation to Koh Sulaiman tehsil’s political assistant, Muhammad Ikram Malik, in a letter and detailed that transport owners had alleged that the hotel mafia on Fort Munro Road is responsible for the incessant landslides on the National Highway after the rains.
Malik has also been instructed to deal stringently with the hotel mafia in question.
A truck driver called Hidataytullah also mentioned that these unnatural landslides are caused when boulders are dropped from the mountains and this often blocks the road.
“When the traffic gets jammed, expensive items are sold by the hotel mafia,” he highlighted and added that fruits and vegetables that are being transported go bad because of the traffic congestion caused by the landslides.