Anti-encroachment team demolishes 35 houses

HYDERABAD: In an anti-encroachment operation to clear land for the construction of a water filtration plant, 35 houses were demolished in Hussainabad, Hyderabad on Saturday. The police also arrested five persons for resisting the operation, which was led by Assistant Commissioner Sarah Javed, to free between five to six acres of land from the squatters.

The Sindh government approved the budget of Rs800 million for building the plant in the fiscal year 2017-18. However, the civil works have so far remained hampered due to encroachment, said an official of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) while talking to The Express Tribune. The plant is being constructed over 17 acres of land near the bank of River Indus.

The first phase of the operation was carried out in August after Hyderabad Commissioner Abdul Waheed Shaikh formally gave the go-ahead for the removal of encroachments. A local resident had earlier claimed that 50 houses were razed by August 25. Abbass Pathan, a local political worker who was among those arrested, claimed while talking to the media, that so far 85 to 90 houses had been demolished. He added that 30 more are likely to be removed in the coming days.



"The district administration has been demolishing our homes without prior notice and without compensating us for the loss," said Pathan, adding that they had been living there for 40 years. After the police arrested Pathan, his brother Muhammad Ishaq Pathan, Manthar Qambrani and two others, Qambrani's mother tried to set herself on fire. However, other residents prevented her from self-immolation.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2018.