After police raid: Rally on Oct 3 to highlight plight of poor

Katchi abadis in I-11 were target of recent police operation against ‘criminals’.

ISLAMABAD:

After a raid on Sector I-11’s katchi abadis by the capital police, the Awami Workers Party (AWP) upped its efforts to mobilise slum-dwellers for a rally on October 3.

AWP, a political party that supports the cause of working classes, said its “Haq-e-Malkiat” rally, from Aabpara to the Parliament House, would demand land reforms for landless peasants and ownership rights for urban slum-dwellers. The Islamabad Police had nabbed around 100 suspects in a raid on Sunday and claimed they recovered arms and other illicit materials from their possession.

Representatives of the party have condemned the operation at the I-11/1 and I-11/4 slums.

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, a leader of the AWP, said the biggest supporters and promoters of criminal activities are not the landless but the landed, moneyed and military elites.

“This operation must be seen in the light of a broader trend of economic exploitation, political repression and state terrorism against the poor,” Akhtar said.

AWP representative Nazish Zahoor said if the police conducts a search operation in any posh area of Islamabad, they are guaranteed to find bigger criminals.

The party said the rally would bring together slum-dwellers, landless peasants and the poor from all over the country. The rally coincides with a high-profile case in the Supreme Court in which AWP and left-wing activists have challenged the judgment against land reforms.   The rally’ organisers are  AWP, National Students Federation and the All Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2013.