KARACHI: While a number of nationalist groups are manifesting against Bahria Town’s expansion plans in Metropolis’ Malir District, unknown culprits had hurled a grenade today (Wednesday 2nd of June) at the Icon Tower in Clifton area injuring a 35-year-old guard Muneer Nazeer.
Incidentally, the Icon Tower is also a project of Bahria spearheaded by Real Estate Tycoon Malik Riaz. It is being insinuated that the attack was carried out by the manifestants. But there are also those who reckon it an orchestrated attempt to gain sympathies.
Cynics further go haywire wondering how those at the helm of affairs, who had been gifted billions of rupees worth of properties or have been drawing millions of rupees as salaries doing nothing from Bahria Town could bite back at the hands that feed them? Nevertheless, as a face-saving measure on Sunday (9th of May, 2021), the Gadap Town police keenly looked at the viral videos (that had already been watched by millions all over the world by means of Social Media) and arrested 13 people visible in the footage.
Though, to complete the formality, FIR had also been duly registered on the complaint of Jan Sher Khan (r/o Kamal Khan Jokhio Goth) against Bahria Town Officials arrested in early hours (under PPC’s sections 147, 148, 149, 337-A and 365 pertaining to rioting armed with weapons, kidnapping or abduction in order to murder and causing injuries/torturing the villagers on the outskirts of Karachi near Kathore on the afternoon of Friday 7th of May, 2021) all know the buying power of Bahria Town.
According to details, on Friday (7th of May, 2021) after Juma prayers the Bahria Town’s security guards (escorted by policemen in civvies and in uniform) attempted to destroy crops in Jam Kamal Khan Goth and encroach upon the land of the villagers to construct a 300 feet road from the main Bahria Town to the newly acquired 500 acres of land (near Kathore) where an extension of Bahria Town is being constructed.
The guards not only resorted to firing, resulting in injuries to three persons but also kidnapped the wounded villagers who were later rescued by the villagers and shifted to a hospital. According to the statement of Jan Sher Khan, Bahria Town guards made him hostage, tortured him and and tied him with ropes attached to their vehicle and whisked him away.
Preposterously, this attack was carried out following removal of Gadap Town’s assistant commissioner, mukhtiarkar (Grade 16 revenue official) and SHO on Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s orders for their failure to maintain law and order in the area.
Further ludicrously, when few days ago a similar attempt was made to occupy villagers’ land in order to build the said road joining the two Bahria Towns, PPP-P Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, (taking notice of the reports of villagers being evicted by employees of Bahia Town and personnel of LEAs,) had asked CM Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah to give him a report further deciphering the open secret.
“I’ve taken notice of the issue and a report should be given to me. All work which is going on there should be immediately stopped until the report doesn’t arrive,” he told the journalists at a Presser held on Friday (30th of April) regarding by-elections in the NA-249 constituency of Karachi: “We definitely want to focus on this that there’s no injustice with anyone and especially if injustice has happened in yesterday’s incident then action should be taken against those who supported this injustice.”
This scribe has been to the site of conflict and interviewed the affected people. From the villagers side Haji Ebraheem Gabol, who owns a considerably large cultivable terrain, claimed that Bahria had acquired a 500-acre piece of land at a little distance from the main Bahria Town. They want to construct a 300-feet wide road running through his village. He said that people belonging to Bahria administration along with LEA personnel attempted to commence the construction of the said road by utilizing heavy machinery.
Haji Ebraheem Gabol, informing that hundreds of villagers converged to face the invaders, accused the Police of beating villagers. He said that the land belonged to them, where they had been living for over a century, hence they should be the first to get benefit from government if there happens to be any. He said that legally they have a lease valid until 2022. He also claimed that construction of a 300-feet wide road would not only usurp a vast tract of the village’s cultivated land but it would also encourage Bahria Town to encroach upon their village.
Moreover, according to Haji Ebraheem Gabol, the Bahria administration wanted to level a mount that serves as a wall for the village. That was unacceptable to the villagers who do not erect boundary walls and reckon the said hillock as a curtain between the people and their privacy. On the other hand concerned authorities state that a negotiation was going on between the Bahria and villagers regarding the compensation for the use of their land. But the villagers wanted an exorbitant amount. On the other hand the villagers are selling their (so called ancestral) lands to people from other provinces though their own lease is expiring next year.
It is pertinent to mention here that the news about eviction of residents from their lands was posted extensively on Thursday 29th of April, 2021 on Social Media. Noor-ul-Huda Shah, écrivain, has Tweeted: “The land of the local population is being seized through Bahria Town. The population is being evicted at gunpoint. People are being pushed back with heavy machinery. Are being arrested. It is as if the foreign invaders have once again invaded Sindh. Will Sindh High Court dare to play any role like Lahore High Court? “ The naive lady seems to be unaware of the daring roles played earlier!!
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