80 acres of land recovered, six land grabbers arrested

By Atif Raza

In the third major operation against land mafia in Karachi, a joint team comprising officials of the city police and the revenue department recovered 80 acres of land in Somar Goth on Saturday.

According to details, several illegal structures were bulldozed in the operation in Somar Goth located in the Steel Town police precincts, while more than 40 police mobiles were present on the site.

Revenue Deputy District Officer (DDO) Shaukat Jokhio, Anti-Encroachment Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Abu Talha, Anti-Encroachment Station House Officer (SHO) Nayyarul Haq and Steel Town SHO Imdad Khwaja supervised the operation. The East zone, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Bin Qasim police also took part in the operation.

Eyewitnesses said, as the team barged in the area, they faced resistance from the locals who pelted them with stones and attacked them with wooden sticks.

The locals took to the streets despite police warnings; therefore, the police was forced to resort to shelling and baton-charging in retaliation, SHO Haq said.

Men and women started protesting and attacking the officials, turning the area into a battlefield, as the bulldozers continued carrying out their tasks.

DSP Talha said women police were also included in the team for properly dealing with women protesters.

DSP Talha, Assistant Sub-Inspector Farzana and constable Sajid sustained injuries when the protesters pelted the team with stones.

DDO Jokhio said the task assigned to the team was successfully carried out and the land belonging to the revenue department recovered.

SHO Haq said besides evacuating 80 acres of land, some other illegal boundary walls in the area were also bulldozed.

Police claimed to have arrested six men associated with the land grabbers, namely Bhai Khan, Habibullah Jokhio, Fazaluddin, Waqar Ahmed, Sajid Anis and Muhammad Nawaz Chandio.

However, other land grabbers - Saleem Balar Jokhio, Ameen Jokhio, Mukhtar Muhammad Jokhio, Zaheer, Agha Shah Gul, Amjad Qureshi and Abbas - managed to escape the scene.

A case was registered against them at the Anti-Encroachment police station in Bin Qasim Town.

Following the operation, the protestors blocked the National Highway at Ghagar Phatak and chanted slogans against the police and the government.

The protest continued for an hour before the police baton-charged the demonstrators and used teargas to disperse them.

DSP Talha said the protestors were gathered and incited by the land encroachers.

Last week, in a meeting of coalition parties in the Sindh government, it was decided that an operation would be launched in the city against land grabbers and no political party would use its influence to protect the land grabbers.