KARACHI: Residents of Karachi’s oldest neighbourhoods and civil rights activists on Monday blamed the real estate giant Bahria Town for forcefully attempting to occupy land of goths in Malir district making indigenous residents of the remote areas homeless.

Addressing a press conference from the platform of Karachi Bachao Tehreek at the Karachi Press Club, Laila Raza and Abeera Ashfaq of the Awami Workers Party with local resident Hafeez Baloch said that on Oct 2 and 3, men who identified themselves as personnel from Bahria Town Karachi Limited (BTKL), accompanied by some police officers, forcefully entered Haji Ali Mohammad Goth in Deh Langeji, district Malir.

Equipped with heavy machinery, including excavators and bulldozers, they attempted to occupy and take over land that belongs to the residents of this village, they said and added that they had taken similar actions last month in other villages including Ali Dad Gabol Goth.

The rights activists suspected that since they entered without permission of the residents and without a court order, they had possibly committed several offences under the Pakistan Penal Code, including criminal trespass, assault, battery, criminal intimidation, dispossession and nuisance.

Rights activists allege some police officers are also complicit with the real estate giant

These villages, Haji Ali Mohammad Goth and Ali Dad Gabol goths, had been inhabited for over 70 years by indigenous citizens who had cultivated and made continuous productive use of the land, they said. Moreover, they added, the villagers’ land ownership and use rights had been duly recognised, protected and notified in the Survey of Pakistan. Many goths in this area have also been regularised through the efforts of Perween Rahman and the Orangi Pilot Project.

The land surrounding the affected villages holds immense historical, social, cultural and economic significance because of the presence of multiple heritage sites and ancient graveyards, neighbouring Khirthar National Park, a legally protected entity, and five rivers that support their livelihoods, they maintained.

“This is not the first time that the BTKL has attempted to bulldoze and criminally dispossess the law-abiding residents of this and other villages,” said Ms Raza. “In April 2019, the same parties had entered this village and marked three to four homes and threatened to build their own road there. During the same time period, they demolished two poultry farms, stole cattle and assaulted and intimidated residents defending their property.”

In 2016, they said, BTKL officials made a road by destroying the goth’s native graveyard, damaging its well and cutting its residents off from accessing water. This caused the residents severe hardship.

Moreover, the officials, assisted by scores of policemen, physically assaulted the villagers and filed false and fabricated criminal charges against them. They have shown absolutely no compassion or restraint when interacting with women of the village, they said.

“This is an ongoing crisis for the people of this village. BTKL, government officials, and industries and all those colluding in this illegal development project are violating multiple national and international laws protecting farming and grazing livelihoods, land, indigenous peoples’ first right to determine land use, women’s rights, environment, wildlife, and heritage and antiquities,” said Ms Ashfaq.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2020