SUKKUR, May 1: Lawlessness and tyranny of outlaws has turned a large swathe of land into a no-man’s land and there is a need for the government to establish the rule of law to protect the life and property of its citizens.

This was stated by one of the victims of outlaws, Agha Saifuddin, a retired judge of the Sindh High Court, while talking to this correspondent on Thursday.

Stressing the need for a major anti-bandit operation in the area, the retired judge said that situation in this regard was very bad in some parts of Sindh.

Citing his own example, he said that he owned 665 acres of land in Deh Bhatti in Thul taluka, Jacobabad district, falling under the jurisdiction of the Bahoo Khoso police station.

Enumerating his difficulties, he said that the wasteland had been cultivated by emigrant growers from Punjab but the bandits had asked them to stop farming and leave. He said that bandits roamed freely on his farmland despite two pickets of the Frontier Constabulary, which had been established along the watercourse running parallel to the farm’s inspection pathway.

Complaining about the apathy of the government functionaries, Mr Saifuddin said that despite having informed Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali about his plight nothing had been done in this regard.

He said that the land, which was his bequeathed upon him by his elders and had been the source of a large income, now yielded nothing as even the local growers refused to till the land.

The retired justice, while bemoaning about the indifferent attitude of law enforcement agencies, said that some masked bandits had stormed his land to kidnap some of his men over a month ago.

He said that he had sent some of his men to plead with the personnel posted at the FC check post to intervene and at least harass the bandits by recourse to aerial firing. He added that they had nothing and only replied that they could not do so without explicit orders from their superiors and had asked his men, whom he had sent there to seek their help, to go back.

He said that if the government was unable to provide safety even to retired judges of the superior courts then it should take the lands back and either compensate them or allot them lands in some other safer areas.

Complaining about the police’s lethargy, he said that they did not even want to meet with him or his representatives.