MAKKAH: All the stones thrown and pleas made by the owner of two houses in the Al-Sharayea District that officials say are illegal did not stop security men and Makkah Mayoralty workers from razing them and arresting the man. The owner's family refused to move while the workers kept on doing their job and razed the first house and started demolishing the second, according to officials. Salim Al-Qithami, the owner of the houses, said he has no job or money and is desperate to provide for his family. “I didn't build the houses with my money, but with the philanthropists' money,” he said. “They helped me because I'm the breadwinner for 12 people. I'm jobless and I have no income. I don't want anything from this world except to shelter my family in this house because I have no money to rent a flat.” Khalid Sindi, head of the Al-Sharayea Municipality, said the two adjacent dwellings should not have been on the site. “The citizen has encroached on public land and constructed two houses on a mountain in Al-Sharayea, close to the water tank,” he said. “The municipality has razed the new house, which was under construction and left the second house, where the family was dug in.” Col. Fahd Al-Harithy, director of the Encroachment Countering Unit at the task forces in Makkah, said the man was taken into custody. “Security authorities have arrested the man who threw stones at the security task force and Mayoralty employees,” he said. He said the man has been referred to Al-Sharayea Police Station to force him and his family to vacate the house so it can be demolished.
