JEDDAH, 13 June — Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed has denied reports that municipal authorities demolished houses in Harazat, an area under the Jeddah governorate, while people were still living inside them.

He said the report, published in an Arabic daily, contained blatantly false information.

The governor was commenting on a report carried by Al-Madinah newspaper on June 6 under the headline “Bulldozers raze Harazat houses with residents inside in the dark of night”.

Prince Abdul Majeed said he had ordered an inquiry soon after the report and found that it contained a lot of wrong information.

“I have noticed Al-Madinah repeatedly publishing such false reports,” he said, adding that nobody was injured during the operation as reported by the daily.

The governor said the operation was aimed at demolishing buildings in certain areas in the northern part of Harazat. Some Saudis, including a government employee, had sold public land in the area to poor citizens.

The committee responsible for supervising land and dealing with transgressions forbade the owners of the land from selling the plot to other citizens.

“There were some rooms which were not suitable for living in. They also kept a large number of women there, thinking their presence would prevent the authorities from enforcing the law,” he said.

The governor said what had happened was that the authorities ordered the removal of the trespassers’ lodgings.

“They were removed during the night of June 4. There was nobody at the site at that time, as the area was not suitable for living in,” he added.

“The violators came to the area several hours after the operation,” he said.

They invited the reporter of the newspaper to create unnecessary confusion. The journalist prepared his report without contacting the concerned authorities and with the aim of sensationalizing the issue.

The governor said the committee, which ordered the demolition of the illegal housing, was under his supervision. They work in the morning, evening and at night and this particular operation was carried out at night, he added.

“Our efforts in dealing with such transgressions will continue and nobody will be allowed to infringe on public or private lands,” the governor said, adding that there are special orders from higher authorities in this respect.

“Nobody will be allowed to transgress on public land and divide it into small plots in a manner designed to facilitate its subsequent sale to the poor. They care neither about whether they conform with town planning regulations or whether the area has the necessary public utilities and drainage systems,” he said.

He said the violators by their irresponsible action were also preventing poor citizens from getting plots of land from government.

He also disclosed that one of the transgressors was an employee in a government department whose main duty is to combat transgressions.

“Those who sold government land to citizens will be questioned and the citizens will be given their rights,” he said.