UMERKOT: A large number of activists of nationalist parties, villagers and townspeople took out a procession here on Monday in protest against chopping off of trees in historical Rohal Wai village by land mafia.

Haleem Baghi and Juman Darbadar, well-known poets, who led the protest told journalists that members of land mafia were using a visit to the village by Pir Sahib Pagara expected within two weeks to grab the 100-acre government land.

They had started chopping off trees and bulldozing all other structures on the pretext of preparing the land for a public gathering to be addressed by Pir Pagara, they said.

They said that in fact the land mafia wanted to occupy the government land and sell it out to earn millions of rupees. They had informed local leadership of PPP and PML-F about it but none bothered to stop them, they said.

Khatai Thebo, a leader of Sindhi Adabi Sangat (SAS) and poet, said that if land grabbers were not stopped, the SAS would launch a series of protests across the province.

Primary teacher Mohammad Juman Gajoo said the land mafia had made people’s lives miserable in the district. After having encroached upon government land they sold it off to multiple customers, he said.

Poet Haji Sand urged Pir Pagara to stop the land grabbers who were bringing to him and his party bad name by bulldozing houses of the poor and illegally occupying them.

Social activist Abdul Haleem Soomro said that some members of land mafia associated with Hur Jamaat were busy encroaching upon government land and the land owned by the poor people which had tarnished the image of the party.

Ali Akbar Rahimoo appealed to SSP of Umerkot to set up a police picket near the land to scare away armed men of land mafia who were terrorising area people. Many villagers had moved applications to local courts against the land-grabbers, he said.