Mob stops officials from conducting anti-encroachment drive in Karachi

Residents attack authorities for trying to remove encroachments from KCR's track

KARACHI: Despite the Sindh High Court's order, the Sindh government failed to conduct the anti-encroachment operation in Hussain Hazara Goth of Gulistan-e-Jauhar on the second consecutive day.

Chief Minister House had earlier announced that an operation against land mafia would be conducted.

According to the announcement, the operation was supposed to be conducted behind Aladdin Amusement Park in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, to clear the encroachments along the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) track.

However, when the anti-encroachment team of Sindh's Board of Revenue reached the area on Tuesday evening on the request of East deputy commissioner Nadeem Abro, they were welcomed with stones and sticks by the residents of Hussain Hazara Goth.



According to Abro, they failed to carry out the operation on the first day (Monday) due to insufficient security forces. On the second day, he said, their team failed to handle the mob and later the residents produced a stay order from the court, because of which the teams had to suspend its operation.

The operation, according to him, was to remove any encroachments along the KCR's track and to get Pakistan Railway housing society's land back from the encroachers.

According to a resident, Ismail, the KCR's tracks are located far from their locality. "There is a huge boundary wall and the KCR's railway tracks lie beyond it," he said. He added that their settlement was inhabited in 1996 and their locality is known as the 'model village' that comprises several small villages.

Another old-timer, Muhammad Fazal, said the residents of the village belong to Rajpur village in Punjab. "We have all the lease documents, for which we paid Rs0.2 million," he said, adding that the builder mafia now wants to vacate the place for KCR.

Meanwhile, Abro refused to comment on this, as the matter is before the court. During the beginning of January, chief minister Murad Ali Shah had already directed Karachi commissioner Ejaz Ahmed Khan to hold a meeting with all deputy commissioners and work out a plan to remove encroachments along the KCR route. However, no significant work has been done since then.