PHOTO: FILE
A landowner and his goons on Saturday demolished more than a dozen houses of labourers who had refused to harvest the wheat on his land for the price he had offered.
A day earlier, Muhammad Nausher, the landowner of village 505-GB Balana, in Mamun Kanjan, had asked the labourer families to harvest his wheat crop and offered 80 kilogrammes of wheat for every acre that they harvested. It is customary for wheat harvesters in the area to be paid in kind, rather than cash. The labourers had said that they would work in exchange for 240 kilogrammes of wheat per acre, which was slightly higher than the going rate of 200 kilogrammes per acre.
The refusal reportedly upset Nausher so much that on Saturday he arrived at the labourers’ houses with around 100 men, many of them armed, and dragged labourers out of their houses and beat them up. The men then used tractors to raze 13 mud-and-clay houses as Nausher and his accomplices abused the labourers and vowed to teach them a lesson for saying no to the landowner.
Muhammad Ashraf, an eyewitness, told The Express Tribune: “The tenants were begging and asking for forgiveness but Nausher and his men did not listen and flattened their houses.” He said that the labourers had built their houses on their own land but the attackers “were shouting that they will not allow even a single labourer to stay in the village and will teach them a lesson for disgracing and humiliating the landowner.” The razing of the structures also destroyed household items of the labourers, he added.
City Police Officer (CPO) Dr Haidar Ashraf said that he had sent police to the spot as soon as he learned about the incident. He told The Express Tribune “The Mamun Kanjan police took prompt action against the landowner and his accomplices for taking the law into their hands. No one would be allowed to force anyone to work against their free will or to maltreat anyone.”
“A large police contingent headed by Saddar Superintendent of Police (SP) Ameer Abdullah rushed to the site and arrested Nausher along with 20 accomplices,” Mamun Kanjan Station House Officer (SHO) Zafar Iqbal said. The police also seized two tractors used for demolishing the houses. A case had been registered, the SHO said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 27th, 2014.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Shamsul Islam: "...The refusal reportedly upset Nausher so much that on Saturday he arrived at the labourers’ houses with around 100 men, many of them armed, and dragged labourers out of their houses and beat them up. The men then used tractors to raze 13 mud-and-clay houses as Nausher and his accomplices abused the labourers and vowed to teach them a lesson for saying no to the landowner...." . I was under the impression that it was Sindh only which was still under the grip of feudalism.