KARACHI: Mohammed Ishaq, deputy director of land in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, laid down his life in the line of duty late on Friday afternoon while leading an anti-encroachment drive in New Karachi.

According to the FIR, Mr Ishaq and his team were trying to demolish illegally-built structures on the 50-foot-wide greenbelt running along Shahrah-i-Usman by the owners of a restaurant, Baloch Sajji House. The massive encroachments were spread in front of several adjoining apartment complexes.

A senior officer present at Ishaq’s funeral on Saturday rejected a claim made by SSP-Central Amir Farooqui that police were not informed in advance of the anti-encroachment drive in Bilal Colony, and insisted that the KMC had issued another notice to the encroachers three days before the drive.

Another member of Mr Ishaq’s team complained that the officials present at the police station were trying to avoid registering an FIR against the murderers identified as Irfan, Kamran and Rizwan while the SHO concerned went untraceable till Saturday morning.

“When we reached the site near Alam Pride around 4 pm, one of the encroachers asked us to speak to Inspector Ghayoor. The inspector told us to leave as he was related to the restaurant owners and was himself one of the partners in the business. When the deputy refused to do so, Irfan and his two brothers, Kamran and Rizwan, opened fire at us,” claimed KMC anti-encroachment team member Kamran Abbas.

According to witnesses, Mr Ishaq, who was leading the drive was struck by two bullets, while a hail of bullets hit the wheel-loader and dumper behind which the other officials sought refuge to save their lives, prompting the FC Jawans accompanying the team to return the fire which finally compelled the assailants to flee.

A journalist living nearby in Bilal Colony told Dawn, the name ‘Baloch Sajji House’ gave the impression as if the illegally-constructed restaurant was being run by some Baloch which, he said, was not the case.

It was the property of a powerful gang involved in land-grabbing. “The commercial value of the encroached land is worth hundreds of millions of rupees,” commented the KMC’s senior director of land present at the funeral.

Mr Ishaq had a reputation of being an honest and dedicated officer whose mission was to rid the city of land mafia, said his colleagues. That’s why they were somewhat disturbed when most news outlets made the mention of his brutal killing just in passing.

However, they also admit the incident was unfortunately not new for the city and its poorly equipped and increasingly demoralised officials.

On Jan 28 in the Empress Market, encroachers reacted with full force to a similar anti-encroachment drive initiated by the new administrator. When police responded to the street agitation by shopkeepers with baton-charge and water cannon, the streets around Empress Market turned into a battleground.

Although there was fortunately no loss of life that day despite injuries to a number of people, many have died in similar attempts in the past.

Meanwhile, many committed social activists continue to be targeted by the mafia. On Jan 30, Saleem Alimuddin, Orangi Pilot Project’s head of research and training, survived a grenade attack in Qasba Colony, escaping with injuries to his arms.

Last year, on March 13, the project’s director Parween Rahman, an architect and well-known pro-poor social activist, was shot dead while on her way home from work.

The overzealous DIG police (West) claimed at that time that Qari Bilal, an alleged leader of the TTP, who was killed in a police “encounter” the very next day was the mastermind of Ms Rahman’s murder. Her colleagues, however, believe that the land mafia was behind her murder as she was diligently documenting land records of the area.

Honest officials point out that many alleged land-grabbers, who have acquired obscene amounts of wealth from their ventures, have been accorded red carpet welcomes at city, district administration and law-enforcement offices in the past. With passage of time they have forged links with those in the highest echelons of power, which renders them virtually beyond the reach of law.