Action necessary against illegal constructions along rivers in KP: COAS

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa said on Tuesday that action should be taken against those who build illegal hotels on the banks of rivers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said that it is too early to estimate how much damage has been done by the unprecedented floods and that the provincial government, district management will estimate, together with the Pakistan Army, the damage caused by the floods.

The Army Chief said that in other places, including Kalam, there has been a lot of damage and the hotels have been damaged a lot, adding that the most disturbing thing is that the same types of hotels were destroyed in the flood that happened in 2010.

“Action should be taken against those who allowed hotels to be built in the same location again so that such incidents do not occur in the future,” he said.

Gen Bajwa went on to say that the most important thing we have done is the reopening of the road till Kalam. While some people said that it would take at least 15 days to reopen the road, he hoped that the army would open the road in 6 to 7 days.