The ruins of Moenjodaro (mounds of dead), an archeological site of the Indus Valley Civilization, is one of the largest and old city settlements of the Indus Valley of South Asia that existed around 2600 BC. It is one of the few sites in subcontinent that UNESCO had designated as a 'world heritage'. But horror of horrors, the National Highway Authority (NHA) has recently appropriated about 300,000 sq ft of this archaeological land in order to extend the road leading to Moenjodaro airport. That would almost certainly frustrate any further excavations of the site and might even terminate the work here permanently. Moreover, the incessant movement of traffic would now surely be in proximity of the main site, causing irreparable harm to the main excavated structures here. The remains of Moenjodaro are already in bad shape because of the apathy of federal and provincial governments as well as pervasive corruption in the archaeological department. The highhandedness of NHA in constructing the road extension is an act of extraordinary insensitivity, indeed callousness, towards what is not just ours but a world heritage, after all. I request the federal and provincial governments to stop this outrage forthwith. Furthermore, before any sort of construction work starts anywhere near these historical remains that are as precious as they are delicate, it is also incumbent upon the country representative of UNESCO to come to the rescue of the site they have declared as a world heritage. -PROF (DR) KAZI KHADIM, Hyderabad, May 1.