The district administration has freed a 56-bigha enemy property from encroachers in Akauni village here, officials said on Monday.??An enemy property is the one which is left behind by the people who took the citizenship of Pakistan and China during and after the partition.

Tehsildar of Tarabganj Tehsil Paigam Haidar said that a team of revenue officials along with heavy police force in the presence of senior officials, operated a tractor over the sugarcane crop which was planted on the said piece of land, and destroyed it. In this connection, a case was registered against four encroachers, he said, and added that the owner of the 56-bigha plot of land had gone to Pakistan, and settled there.

The encroachments have been removed now, he said.?The government has vested enemy properties in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India, an office instituted under the central government. After the India-China war of 1962 and Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, the Enemy Property Act was enacted in 1968, which regulates such properties and lists the custodian's powers.

(With PTI inputs)