Burnt Down: Illegal residents set police post in Shanti Nagar on fire

Land grabbers opened fire on police when they tried to force the encroachers away.

KARACHI:

The Ghulam Hussain Shaheed police post and three motorcycles were set on fire in Shanti Nagar after a heavy contingent of law enforcers, including officials from the Anti-Encroachment Cell (AEC), launched an operation to clear encroachments in the area.

The land grabbers opened fire on the law enforcers and pelted stones at them as soon as they arrived. Around 16 acres of land that was reserved for the Cooperative Housing Society in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town had been encroached upon. The land grabbers responsible for the situation not only built houses on the land but also sold plots to other people. The illegal residents said that they would not leave their houses because they had paid for these plots. The official inspector of the AEC, Shahid Qureshi, said that the police went to remove the encroachment on the court’s orders and that a notice had also been sent to the illegal residents about fifteen days ago. The District East SSP East, Javed Odho, told The Express Tribune that the situation was brought under control late in the evening. The police have yet to arrest the culprits.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2012.