Awaiting action: Operation to be carried out on encroached land in 10 days

KARACHI:

District East deputy commissioner (DC) Asif Jan Siddiqui assured on Wednesday members of the Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys' Cooperative Housing Society that a phase-wise operation will be carried out on the encroached land within 10 days.

The police will survey the area and will submit a report to the DC office and, in light of that report, an operation with the assistance of the Rangers will be carried out.

Sohrab Goth DSP Khalid said that they were already working on the polio issue in the area and clearing encroachment for National Highway Authority (NHA) and needed time of at least 15 days. The honorary secretary of the society, Naseem, responded that one-and-a-half years have gone by and no action has so far been taken. Karachi Metropolitan Corporation anti-encroachment department's representative, Azeemullah, said that they needed machinery as well as assistance of Rangers for the operation. "Angry mob of women and children come with stones and sticks in hands and the situation gets out of hand," he said.

Meanwhile, Naseem told The Express Tribune that he was not much hopeful about the meeting. He said that several such meetings have occurred earlier but no fruitful result had emerged.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2016.