Prisoner Tree

 

Prisoner Tree

 

 PESHAWAR (Pakistan): An old banyan tree in Landi Kotal cantonment has been chained for years and is still awaiting release.

 

 In 1898, a British army officer, James Squid, in a drunken state, saw a banyan tree planted in the cantonment moving towards him and ordered a soldier to arrest the tree immediately.  Obeying the order, the soldier chained the tree.  From that day to this day, the tree stands chained in the Lindi Kotal cantonment, with a plaque in English that reads: "I am under arrest."

 

 Even after the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, this tree remained chained and no one tried to free it from its chains.  Local people say that the purpose of keeping this tree chained till today is to remember the atrocities of the British as the British authorities used to punish the tribal there to keep them in fear of their oppression and tyranny.  And often tied with heavy chains.