Railway authorities demolish illegal houses in Sukkur

Clashes take place between police and encroachers near Shalimar Railway Crossing

SUKKUR:

The Minara Road of Sukkur turned into a battlefield on Wednesday as clashes took place between the police and encroachers near Shalimar Railway Crossing.

The anti-encroachment operation was aimed at removing houses and shops illegally constructed on the railway land.

Following the apex court’s orders to remove encroachments from the railway land, an anti-encroachment team of Sukkur Railways accompanied by the railway and district police reached near Shalimar Railway Crossing and started demolishing the illegally constructed houses and shops on both the sides of the railway tracks. This sparked anger among the encroachers, who gathered in the area and put up resistance to the police. Nonetheless, the police continued to demolish the houses.



In the meantime, the protesters burnt tyres and blocked the main Minara Road while shouting slogans against the railway authorities and the government. The protesters including Mir Muhammad, Asif and Ghulam Mustafa said that the railway authorities started the anti-encroachment drive without issuing notices to them. They further said that the authorities are afraid to touch the houses, offices and shops constructed illegally on railway land by influential persons. “We are ready to pay whatever the government charges for the plot but, if the government is going to make us homeless, we will launch a strong protest movement,” one of them warned.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, the candidate for the slot of Sukkur Municipal Corporation mayor, Arsalan Shaikh, reached the site and held negotiations with the protesters. The protesters reiterated their complaints that the railway authorities have demolished their houses without issuing any notice to them and that they are demolishing the houses of poor people alone while nothing has been done to the encroachments constructed by influential persons. “It is wrong if the railway authorities have demolished the houses without issuing notices,” said Shaikh. He also promised to take up the matter with the railway authorities, after which the blockade was ended.

The divisional superintendent of Sukkur Railways, Aijaz Buriro told The Express Tribune that notices were issued to the encroachers. “But when they failed to remove the encroachments, we were compelled to take action,” he said. When his attention was drawn towards the encroachments constructed by influential persons, he said that the authorities are not going to spare anybody, no matter how influential they are.

“The anti-encroachment operation is being carried out to implement the apex court’s order and, therefore, it will be done across the board,” he said. “We have issued notices to all the encroachers but some of the influential encroachers have tampered the record and we are going to take care of them, too.” He assured that the operation is not going to stop until the removal of all the encroachments. “We will launch the operation mercilessly within the next couple of days.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2015.