SUKKUR, Dec 11: Residents of a big settlement around a hill named Adam Shah Takri have launched a protest drive against the district administration plan to carry out development work at the hilltop site as part of a mega beautification project for the city.

Several hundred families live in the settlement along Military Road and in Nawan Goth and Bandhani Muhalla.

The protesters apprehended that after execution of the beautification plan at this site, people visiting the hilltop resorts and recreation spot would be able to have an easy view of the interior of their houses in breach of their privacy.

They told the media that they had been living in the settlement for decades and now the administration intended to evict many of the families from their houses in the name development.

They argued that it was not necessary to dismantle any house to execute the project but several families had been informed that they could be asked to move out of the area to facilitate the construction work.

They said that instead of removing encroachments from thoroughfares, the administration was bent upon dislodging families and rendering them homeless. They noted that the illegal structures blocking three ways leading to the hilltop were surprisingly not being dismantled.

Even if most of the old inhabitants of the settlement were not touched in the process of dismantling structures at the project site, the families living the localities overlooking the hilltop would definitely deprived of their privacy, they added.

The protesters said that the Adam Shah Takri area was part of a graveyard and it was beyond their comprehension that why the site was selected to become a recreation spot.

Rejecting the protesters’ views, Sukkur Commissioner Dr Niaz Ali Abbasi told the media that anti-social elements had been running their drug, gambling and vice dens within the settlement. “It is like a mini-Lyari,” he remarked. He said it was the state-owned land around the Adam Shah Takri which had, in fact, been grabbed by ‘land mafia’ and sold away to needy people.

The commissioner said that under a multi-million beatification plan, the entire area was being developed as a recreation spot like Daman-i-Koh (Islamabad). Anti-social elements and encroachers would have to be removed from the area to ensure a peaceful and comfortable environment at and around the hilltop resort, he added.

However, he said, innocent people living around the hill would not be forcibly removed. “They will be provided alternative residences if they wished so,” he said.

Protest over excesses

A large number of people belonging to the Bhangwar community held a demonstration at the Kashmore section of the National Highway on Wednesday in protest against alleged harassment and excesses by the station house officer (SHO) of the A-Section police station.

They claimed that SHO Bahar Din Keerio subjected Ghulam Yaseen Bhangwar to intense torture and was threatening other members of the community.

Led by Niaz Ali Bhangwar, the protesters held a sit-in blocking the highway. They raised slogans against the SHO and demanded action against him.

Movement of vehicular traffic on the highway remnained suspended till last reports came in on

The protesters told the media that the SHO had a bad reputation and claimed that he had recently been reverted by the Larkana DIG for his alleged involvement in an oil theft incident.