Land dispute: One killed, five others injured in armed clash in Landhi

The clashing groups belong to different religious sects

KARACHI: At least one person was killed and five others were injured when two groups engaged in an armed clash over a land dispute in Landhi on Wednesday night.

According to Landhi police station SHO Ahmed Butt, the two groups belonging to different sects have been involved in a dispute over the ownership of a plot for a decade.

Tension escalated when members of a Shia group erected a wall around the plot and the other group resisted the move, which led to the armed clash, he explained. “A 35-year-old man, identified as Qaiser Abbas, was killed in the gunfire while five others sustained injuries.”

However, the SHO added that the issue was resolved after the police intervened and called both the parties for a meeting. “Each side blamed the other for the violence,” he commented, adding that the police will continue its action against the miscreants involved.

The plot in question lies in Landhi 36-B area, where an imambargah and mosque, Asna Ashri, is situated. According to the Shia Ulema Council (SUC), the mosque was established in 1972 and was not disputed at all. Some miscreants are trying to paint this issue as Shia-Sunni tension while in reality it is not such an issue at all, asserted SUC spokesperson Nayyer Ali, adding that a particular group that has a history of creating such nuisance was behind this act.

According to Ali, an issue was created when the imambargah committee raised a wall on the adjacent plot taken on lease for parking. He claimed that no resident of the vicinity reported any problem while another outsider group called in armed people and attacked the building.

Umer Muavia, a spokesperson for proscribed organisation Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, claimed that none of their people were involved in the incident. However, he accused the imambargah committee of encroaching upon a land owned by the government. “This is a plot reserved for the adjacent government primary school,” he claimed. “The students play there.” Muavia said that the residents reacted over the erection of the wall and the clash took place. He also claimed that a case was already pending in the court over the imambargah using the land for its parking purposes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2016.