KARACHI, Feb 22: The Karachi-based Baloch Rights Council (BRC), an NGO working for attainment of rights of the Baloch dominated areas in the metropolis, has expressed concern over land-grabbing activity in the Hawkesbay area of Keamari Town.

BRC president Abdul Wahab Baloch and General Secretary Nisar Baloch, in a joint statement, claimed that a government agency had occupied 14-acre land of Baloch community in Abdul Rehman Goth in the Hawkesbay area.

They alleged that the local people had protested against the illegal occupation but were beaten up and warned of the same consequences being faced by the community in Balochistan.

The statement pointed out that the Baloch community had been living in the village for centuries, although a majority of the landowners did not have property documents. It deplored that dislodging of these families from their ancestral lands either by force or fraudulent means.

The BRC representatives said that land-grabbing had become a major problem in the Hawkesbay area because the government had not spelled out a clear-cut policy on the management of land.

According to them, in the absence of a clear-cut land allotment policy and demarcation of the lands owned by villagers since centuries, land disputes would often take place between security agencies and the local residents.

In this context, they referred to the situation in Mubarak village, Yunisabad and a number of other villages in Gabopat union council jurisdiction where people were complaining that security agencies and land-grabbers had been depriving of their ancestral lands.

They recalled that such complainants had been protesting quite frequently with a view to draw the government’s attention to the situation, and regretted that no heed was being paid to their grievances.

They urged government agencies to stop the practice of snatching the lands from the legitimate occupants in Baloch settelements of Karachi in the name of development, security and other pretexts.