The head of the Standard Buildings control department of Kabul’s Municipality, a number of engineers and other municipality staff have been beaten up by men close to the director of Pamir Shamal Company.
 
Naqibullah Esmati, head the department, said they were beaten when they wanted to destroy an illegal gas station built on a green area in Kabul by Pamir Shamal, a private company.
 
“Security forces of the area, and Special Forces of the garrison also arrived. Without asking any questions on why we had come here, they started beating us,” he said.
 
The Head of Kabul municipality said four acres of the government’s green area had been grabbed by director of Pamir Shamal Company and a gas station was being built on it.
 
Kabul municipality, said it acted based on a decree issued by the president and had the authority to destroy any illegal building.
 
“The owner of the land deferred to us only after he had already built the building illegally. He then said he wanted to get a permission letter, but when we referred the matter to the directorate concerning the area, they said they had never given the company permission for the construction,” said Abdullah Habibzai, Kabul’s mayor.
 
Noor Alam, director of Pamir Shamal Company however said he had owned the land for 15 years and recently wanted to build an awning for the people.
 
“It is not a gas station. A gas station has a tanker and cable. It is a green area,” he said.
 
Although he said men had beaten municipality staff, he denied they were his employees. However armed men were seen in the area preventing municipality staff destroying the gas station.
 
Kabul municipality had before destroyed illegal buildings and gas stations, but this is the first time its staff had been beaten.