Tonight, the lights are on in the building in Bosniak Mahala; the employees remain in the official premises during the night

In the building in Bosniak Mahala where the offices of Serbian institutions are located, all the lights are on tonight, and according to information from Kosovo Online, the employees who came to work this morning are still in the official premises, where they will spend the night.

Employees in the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, in the Provincial Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, in the Center for Social Work Vucitrn, and representatives of the Kosovska Mitrovica Administrative District, whose working hours ended at 3 p.m., did not go home and are still at their workplaces, a reporter of Kosovo Online reports.

This is their response to the request to leave the premises by midnight, which is the deadline set for them by the administration of the mayor of North Mitrovica, Erden Atiq, because the building, according to the new regulation, belongs to Kosovo institutions.

The situation in Bosniak Mahala tonight is calm, but tense. There are few people on the streets, and more police vehicles are visible, patrolling through Bosniak Mahala.

At the end of last month, the police and municipal inspectors entered the building in Bosniak Mahala for the first time and gave employees of Serbian institutions three days to leave their offices, but the forced eviction was postponed until September 8.

As Kosovo Online learns, even today, a Western Embassy in Pristina asked Atiq to once again postpone the decision on the forced eviction of Serbian institutions. Allegedly, Atiq responded positively to that request and the forced eviction of Serbian institutions from the building in Bosniak Mahala was postponed until after September 14, after the meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Brussels.

By the way, the Kosovo Police received a tip this morning that there was an explosive device in that very building, but it was determined that the tip was false. The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, reacted to that, saying that it had been Kurti's "trick" in order to evict the employees, which he had failed to do.

The Vice-President of the Serb List, Igor Simic, said that the attempts of the Kosovo authorities to evict Serbian institutions from the building in Bosniak Mahala in North Mitrovica were aimed at expelling all the Serbs from Kosovo.

The European Union also expressed concern about the decision of the authorities in North Mitrovica. EU spokesman Peter Stano said, even during the first appearance of the police and municipal inspectors in the building, that this move did not contribute to efforts to de-escalate tensions in Kosovo.