THATTA, July 10: Internally displaced persons of Lyari living in parts of Thatta district are facing tremendous hardship as most of them stay in the open, in school courtyards or homes of their relatives.

Mostly women and children, these IDPs have been forced by violence and gang warfare in Lyari to take shelter elsewhere, leaving behind their homes and properties.The villages which have received these desperate people include Hashim Mandhro near Bhambhore, Dhabeji, Gharo, Pir Patho, Khore Waah, Achar Rahemo, Muhammamd Ali Mandhro, Abdullah Mandhro and Ismail Mandhro.

An octogenarian man who did not want to be named told Dawn on Wednesday that no government official or philanthropist had visited them since their arrival in Thatta.

IDPs alleged that some families comprising 96 IDPs were expelled by the school headmaster and officials of the Mirpur Sakro education department from the government elementary school in Hashim Mandhro, where they were lodged. Those families later migrated to unknown places.

Hazooran, Shahida, Wazeeran and other women said gangsters back in Lyari were occupying their homes and properties and the law enforcers were taking no step to protect their properties.

Some IDP families, mostly Kutchhis from Agra Taj Colony and Kalri, who have taken shelter in Hashim Mandhro, refused to accept six big bowls of cooked food reportedly sent to them by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, saying they did need food but needed peace in their ancestral localities in Karachi.

They said it was a matter of shame that the rulers had given a free hand to gangsters and showering bullets on innocent Kutchhis and others, and for their face saving sending food items to them.

Meanwhile, a convoy of Kutchhis living in their makeshift arrangements in the Dhabeji UC on learning about reconciliation between the Baloch and the Kutchhi Rabita Committee of Lyari were headed to their homes in Karachi, but returned to Thatta late on Tuesday evening. Reports said that when they reached Quaidabad, they learned that the deliberations between the two groups had broken down.

Earlier, some 20 families going to Karachi had returned from Yousuf Shah Dargah and Shah Giryo Dargah in Badin district.