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South Asia: Drive for profit fuels effort to evict poor
By Tania Siddiqi posted on May 12, 2021
Karachi residents resist ongoing illegal demolitions and forced evictions.
In Pakistan, Karachi Bachao Tehreek (KBT), an alliance of local activists struggling against evictions and illegal land grabs, reported that Bahria Town personnel, the town’s private guards, and Sindh province’s police entered various Goths [small neighborhoods populated mainly by Sindhi people] May 7 with heavy machinery, intending to further encroach on poor Indigenous people’s lands.
Abdul Hafeez, a member of Sindh Indigenous Rights Alliance, informed the newspaper “Dawn” that guards and police attempted to destroy crops with bulldozers in Kamal Khan Jokhio Goth. Community members responded by engaging in acts of resistance against the intruders. After one person threw a stone at Bahria Town personnel, guards began shooting at the villagers.
In this file photo, Bahria Town Karachi officials and security personnel are seen in Kamal Khan Jokhio Goth in Malir. Photo: Karachi Bachao Tehreek Twitter/File
Police on Saturday registered a case against the Bahria Town Karachi (BTK) security administration over charges of rioting, kidnapping and inflicting injuries, according to official sources and rights activists.
The decision was apparently taken after an intervention by the top PPP leadership and the Sindh chief minister.
On Friday, the security guards accompanied by policemen in civvies and in uniform tried to destroy agricultural crops in Jam Kamal Khan Goth in order to pave the way for new BTK projects near Kathor, a move that was resisted by the villagers.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Saturday removed the assistant commissioner and
mukhtiarkar (revenue official) of Gadap Town after a man was injured in firing allegedly carried out by private guards of Bahria Town Karachi (BTK) and policemen in civvies a day earlier.
In a statement, Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that the chief minister also removed the Gadap Town SHO for not maintaining peace and order in the area . The chief minister has also ordered a complete inquiry into the incident, he added. The Sindh chief minister has said that we will not allow anyone to be wronged. The rights of the local people will be completely protected, Shah said.