Illegal mining: Court warns police of criminal prosecution

The petitioner has gone to the Sindh High Court on illegal lifting of sand and gravel.

KARACHI: Any police officer either directly or indirectly involved in excavating sand or gravel anywhere in Karachi is likely to face criminal prosecution according to the Sindh High Court’s latest order.

This directive came on Wednesday on a petition filed by Muhammad Siddique, who has taken the police officers to court for allowing illegal lifting of sand and stones along the left bank of the Malir River.

The SHC division bench headed by Justice Maqbool Baqir was hearing the plea.

“Due to excessive lifting of reti and bajri despite a ban, the level of subsoil water has dropped from 80 feet to 300 feet [over the years],” the petitioner claimed. “Such digging and removal is proving disastrous. The whole irrigation system in the area is now dependent on sewage.”

Siddique alleged that contractors were excavating the minerals in connivance with the area police illegally.

The judges were of the view that it was common knowledge sand and gravel were being excavated in large quantities on a daily basis and too under police patronage.

While Jahangir Maher, the Mines and Minerals SHO, assured the court that removal of ‘reti’ and ‘bajri’ would not be allowed within his jurisdiction in the future, the court warned that any police officer patronising illegal excavation would face criminal prosecution.

The judges directed all SHOs and their superiors concerned to ensure that under no circumstances sand and gravel were allowed to be mined.

The court also asked the media to keep a watchful eye especially on riverbeds, where such illegal removal was taking place and publish the news so that such developments may be brought to the court’s notice.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2012.