Flood relief officer ‘ignores Shia village population’

Local residents gave a written statement to this effect on Monday.

SIKANDRABAD: Esakhel tehsil resident Girdawar Muhammad Hashim Khan, who is in charge of relief goods has been accused of spreading sectarianism and is ignoring the Shia population of flood victims.

Local residents from Ranjhe Wala including Ghulam Shabbir, Amir Mukhtar, Riaz, Malik Saadat and others gave a written statement to this effect on Monday.

They said that Girdawar belonged to a diehard Sunni sect and hated the Shia community.

“He has continuously overlooked the Shia community in relief operations and has not even distributed goods to two entire villages because he knew they had a majority Shia population,” Mukhtar said.

They said most of the people in Ranjhey Wala belonged to the Shia community and that the official had removed the names of the Shia community from all distribution lists for the flood affected people. “The Ranjhey Wala area has not been provided a single bottle of water,” said Malik Saadat. Locals in the area said they suffered severely during the floods and added that many have lost their houses and livestock.

Residents in Sikandrabad said that Hashim Khan was fanning the flames of sectarianism in the area and was using abusive language against the Shia community in a local mosque. The people appealed to the provincial finance minister, Sargodha commissioner and Mianwali district coordination officer (DCO) to register case against the official.

Girdawar has termed the accusations baseless and said that members of the Shia community were against him because he had been given charge of relief operations for the area.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2010.