Karachi: Hundreds of protesters attacked on Sunday Bahria Town Karachi and set fire to several shops and vehicles in the housing society, the police and residents said.
A large number of protesters were staging a sit-in outside the housing society off the Super Highway.They were protesting what they say their forceful eviction from their ancestral lands in the vicinity.
A heavy contingent of police was on the spot to deal with any untoward situation, while the Bahria Town management sealed the entrance with containers.But the protesters breached the barricaded gate and entered the housing society.
A Suzuki car showroom and a fast food joint were among the establishments torched by the protesters, according to an eyewitness.
The protesters looted at least two ATMs, said another resident. The police managed to disperse protesters after some time.
The sit-in was organised by residents of nearby villages, who say they had been forced to give their land to Bahria Town.The sit-in was attended by members of the Sindh United Party, Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party, Qaumi Awami Tehreek, Jiye Sindh Mahaaz, Awami Workers Party, Awami Jamhoori Party, Sindh Mazahmat Tehreek, Hari Committee and the Karachi Indigenous Rights Alliance.
In 2015, the Karachi Indigenous Rights Alliance was formed in reaction to the Bahria Town land acquisition, which they said had affected dehs in the Malir area. The alliance was headed by Saleem Baloch who was supported by heavyweights such as then State Minister for Communication MNA Hakeem Baloch, MPA Haji Shafi Jamot of Malir’s PS-129, historian Gul Hasan Kalmatti, Jam Abdul Kareem of Malir, well-known activist Yousaf Masti Khan and former nazim Khuda Dino Shah.
At the time, they had argued that the Supreme Court had in 2011 passed an order telling the government that it could not allot its land to private institutions. But the Bahria Town developments in Malir, especially Deh Langheji, came and were also in contravention to the Land Revenue Act 1967 and the Sindh Gothabad Act 1987, they had said.
