Nationalist party set up camp without builder’s permission

KARACHI: A few thousand flood survivors became the unwitting victims of a political party’s decision to set up a relief camp in apartments on Karachi’s outskirts last week. As the police tried to evict them, two people were killed in the gun battle - but they were not flood survivors as claimed earlier.

Jeay Sindh Tehreek activists set up a camp in newly built but empty apartments in Chapal Sun City, which lies off University Road at Safoora Goth. People are living in its bungalows but according to these residents, 800 Grand City apartments (inside the Chapal project) over four blocks were empty.

When the builder found out that thousands of flood survivors had taken up residence there, he sought the police’s help to have the area vacated, according to Inspector Asif Munawar. He said that talks were held with the partymen for about three days.

This was confirmed by flood survivor Azizullah from Shikarpur, who fled to the Sachal Goth relief camp from Chapal Sun City after this incident. “We were told that this was an official camp and owned by the people who had asked us to stay here,” he said. The 23-year-old said he was invited by one of his friends in Karachi who was an activist of the JST. “We were in search of shelter and we thought some good people had set up a camp.”

Azizullah confirmed that the police told them to vacate the camp and move to the ones set up by the government at Sachal Goth and Malir. He said that the JST workers had told them “not to take the police seriously and consider the residential flats as their own”.

When it became clear that the talks had failed, on Monday, 40 vehicles of the city police and rangers stormed in. In the ensuing shoot-out, two people were killed and eight others were injured. The police said that the two victims belonged to the JST and were landgrabbers, but the party said that flood survivors were killed.

Azizullah’s mother Sahaa said they woke up to the sound of bullets. “From one side the police were firing and from other side the people who had provided us shelter were firing,” she said. “God is angry with us. On one hand, the water has taken everything and on the other hand people wanted to kill us that day.”

According to the family, the police were positioned in the streets and near the general store in the front of the four-storey apartments. They said that the men who resisted the police were positioned in some apartments and on the main street.

“First the police fired teargas shells and then the firing started,” said Mir Qasim, a resident of Khairpur, who had taken up in an apartment on a second floor. Flood survivors said that party workers deputed for “their security” had fired at the police.

“Saeen, if we knew that the police had come to kill us, we would have left long ago,” said 73-year-old Allah Buksh.

According to another flood survivor, Jameel, after the firing they decided it was time to leave no matter what anyone said. They left so fast many of them forgot clothes that are still hanging in the balconies to dry.

One JST activist, who was trying to hit the police from the back of street No 2 in block III, was killed, said Hussain, a vendor. The other activist was killed in an exchange of fire with the police at the back of the apartments. There were bloodstains on the ground.

Around eight people were injured by police fire, said security guard Ali Raza Chandio. The bullets struck the corner apartments on the second floor where some flood survivors were living. He said two children were injured.

For their part, the actual residents of Chapal Sun City’s bungalows felt sorry for the flood survivors as did others. “Yes, there were some bad party people in the apartments, but the builders and police should have waited for the sake of the flood-affected people,” said Murad Hussain, a vendor. “The number of people who intended to occupy the apartments was just a few.”

Security guard Abdul Razzaq said: “I accept that the ultimate sufferers were the flood affectees but the party workers were also in the camps.”

For their part, JST chief Dr Safdar Sarki told The Express Tribune that his party had indeed established a relief camp at the apartments but the eviction operation was launched on the behest of political interests. “The camp was set up after taking different political parties into confidence,” he said. “It is a conspiracy by certain political parties against the flood-affected people.”

Sarki maintained there were 7,000 people but the police put the number at 3,000. “It was not as if they were occupying the place,” he added.

The police assert that the JST should have taken the builder and local authorities into confidence before establishing the camp. “If the builder is not allowing them to set up a camp on his property how can they do it?” asked SHO Sachal Rao Zakir. “The party wanted to establish its hold in the area in the name of the flood affectees and it was the party workers who fought with the police.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2010.