This tree in Pakistan has been under arrest since 1898

Back in 1898, when it was all India (including Pakistan), a banyan tree inside the Landi Kotal army cantonment area (now in Pakistan) was ordered to be arrested. It all happened after the victim, a British Army Officer, James Squid in a drunken state claimed that the tree haunted him in broad daylight! The army […]

Back in 1898, when it was all India (including Pakistan), a banyan tree inside the Landi Kotal army cantonment area (now in Pakistan) was ordered to be arrested.
It all happened after the victim, a British Army Officer, James Squid in a drunken state claimed that the tree haunted him in broad daylight!
The army officer was so terrified that on his orders, shackles were put over the tree, so that the convict doesn’t escape. It’s been over 100 years, and the prisoner is still serving the sentence.
And, as if this humiliation wasn’t enough, a slate was put around the bark with a warning, “I am under arrest. Do Not Try To Touch.”
Even today, the tree has been tied in chains and no one has bothered to take off the shackled and free the Banyan tree.
In a Pakistani daily, it was reported as, “Over a hundred years ago, during the high noon of the British Empire, army officer James Squid saw an old banyan tree and thought that it was lurching towards him. The officer, who was reportedly intoxicated, felt threatened by the tree and asked the mess sergeant to arrest it. The mess sergeant followed the officer’s orders and chained the offending tree.”
Calling the captive tree ‘Symbol of Draconian British Raj’ locals say, “Through this act, the British basically implied to the tribesmen that if they dared act against the Raj, they too would be punished in a similar fashion.

Culled from speakingtree.in