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| June 15, 2008 | Sunday | Jamadi-us-Sani 10, 1429 |
KARACHI: Drive against encroachments turns ugly
KARACHI, June 14: A truck belonging to the City District Government Karachi was set alight and 10 people were arrested on Saturday as the CDGK removed encroachments on a 10-acre piece of land in front of the University of Karachi, witnesses and officials said.
They said the situation turned unruly when a strong team of the city government started the anti-encroachment operation at around 12 noon and demolished over 2,500 huts.
The witnesses said vehicular traffic on the University Road remained disrupted for hours as the displaced people chanted anti-administration slogans and pelted vehicular traffic with stones before they torched the government vehicle.
Additional Executive District Officer, Revenue, Matanat Ali Khan told Dawn that the CDGK team, equipped with heavy equipment, evacuated the illegally occupied land meant for residential plots for KDA employees and two parks. “A conduit of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board is also located on the land,” he added.
The CDGK official said the land-grabbers had occupied the government land three or four months ago.
The evacuees, however, said they had been living on the land for the past several years.
The additional EDO said that 15 trucks and six loaders were used in the removal of the encroachments, and over 200 CDGK personnel participated in the operation.
Gulistan-i-Jauhar police said that 10 people were booked and arrested for creating a law and order situation and setting a CDGK vehicle on fire.
Town Police Officer Javed Meher said a heavy contingent of police assisted the CDGK team in the anti-encroachment operation. “The situation did turn unruly for a while, but it was brought under control immediately,” he added.
A 65-year-old man was shot dead in Sohrab Goth.
Police said Haji Esa was a resident of Indus Plaza and he was the owner of a shop in the plaza.
They said three attackers, riding a motorcycle, came to his shop in the morning and shot him.
The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where sources said the elderly victim received multiple bullet wounds in his upper torso from very close range.
They said the relatives of the victim took away his body without post-mortem.
Later, the police again shifted the body to the hospital for an autopsy.
A case against unknown culprits was registered on the complaint of the victim’s son, Shams.
A young man and a suspected dacoit were killed in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.
Sharea Faisal police said Karam Ali Bostan, a transporter, was travelling in his car (CB-5694) along with his cousin, Noorul Haq, after withdrawing Rs300,000 from a bank in Gulistan-i-Jauhar when five occupants of a car intercepted him near Rabia City.
They said that one of the culprits got out and came straight to the victim’s car, who was also armed with his licensed pistol.
The police said the victim, who hailed from Waziristan, smelt a rat as he saw the attacker approaching and reached for his weapon.
They said the attacker opened fire on the victim as he got close to him and the fatally wounded victim also returned fire, hitting the attacker.
The victim was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead, while the injured suspect died at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
Hospital sources said the victim received a single bullet that pierced through his chest, while the suspect received two bullets, one in his chest and the other to his head.
The police said that apparently it was a case of robbery as the victim was returning after withdrawing cash from a bank, but they added that the possibility of personal enmity could not be ruled out.
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