Inch by inch the police takes a stand against squatters

KARACHI: This time the police went prepared with lathis and tear gas. When they started bulldozing the unauthorised settlement people squatting on the land came out in a horde and attacked them. Three men fell upon a thick-set constable, grabbed his hair and kicked and punched him.

By noon, however, the police claimed some sort of a victory in Somar Goth where 80 acres were freed up in the third consecutive operation against the land mafia. More than 40 mobile police units and the bulldozers arrived at 8am and started tearing down land that the revenue department claims belongs to it. Notice had been issued to the people squatting on the land but it was unlikely for them to give up without a fight. They used whatever they could get their hands on, stones, rocks, their slippers. The police retaliated with lathis and tear gas, said SHO Nayyarul Haq.

It was a bitter scuffle . Anti-encroachment DSP Abu Talha, ASI Farzana and PC Sajid were injured. They were at some points outnumbered by the agitated residents, who included women and children.

Protesters blocked the National Highway at Ghagghar Phattak for an hour and shouted and screamed slogans against the police and government.

Some of them held up Pakistan Peoples Party flags.

Despite the protests, the bulldozers did not stop their work and continued to tear down the illegal buildings and boundary walls. The poorly cemented brickwork was no match for the machines.

The police arrested six men linked to the land grabbers - Bhai Khan, Habibullah Jokhio, Fazaluddin, Waqar Ahmad, Sajid Anis and Muhammad Nawaz Chandio. Other members of the gang, Saleem Balar Jokhio, Ameen Jokhio, Mukhtar Muhammad Jokhio, Zaheer, Agha Shah Gul, Amjad Qureishi and Abbas, managed to escape. They police registered FIR (No 09/10) at Bin Qasim Town.

Bin Qasim DDO Shaukat Johio, DSP Abu Talha and SHO Haq monitored the work. They were aided by the force from the East Zone, Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Bin Qasim Town.

By the afternoon, DDO Jokhio said that he felt it had been a successful job as the area had been evacuated.

Governor’s orders

Governor Ishratul Ebad Khan had issued the Sindh Public Private Property (Removal of Encroachment) Ordinance 2010 on June 10 to ensure that encroachments are removed from public property and land is retrieved. Under the ordinance, the government or any authorised officer can order the removal of encroachments within two days. They can request police assistance. The coalition parties in the Sindh government had decided at a meeting last week that squatters would have to be tackled. Since then 400 acres have been evacuated in Surjani Town. In a second operation 174 acres were freed in Baldia Town.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2010.