DADU: Sindh United Party convener Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah has said that the huge response received by the party’s call for Sindh-wide protest against “Bahria Town administration’s criminal act of demolition of Karachi’s old goths [villages]” is people’s victory.

He was speaking to a large number of activists who gathered at his residence in Jamshoro on Saturday. SUP general secretary Roshan Ali Buriro accompanied Mr Shah.

The SUP chief deplored that the BTK administration was continuing to victimise residents of the city’s old villages. He said a number of youths and other residents of the Gadap and Kathore villages were arrested for resisting the unlawful occupation of their lands. He alleged that the BTK security personnel were taking away youths with them after picking them up from their houses. They were later being handed over to police at various police stations, he added.

Mr Shah accused the Sindh government and leadership of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party of supporting the BTK administration in the demolition work.

The SUP leader said that the BTK administration was directed by Supreme Court to acquire 16,000 acres but it had already grabbed up to 50,000 acres and was still grabbing more by demolishing villages.

He argued that if BTK intended to create a city, this would need legislation. He apprehended that the BTK intended to bring in “outsiders” to settle on Sindh’s territory. This, he warned, would change the province’s demography.

He claimed that PPP and its government were supporting the BTK because they had a share in the Bahria venture. He deplored that the Sindh government was using police to occupy poor villagers’ property by force.

Mr Shah demanded release of all villagers arrested for resisting the BTK actions. He alleged that the youths detained at police stations were being subjected to torture. They were being harassed and intimidated with motive to silence them.

He said the SUP staged peaceful protests in various Dadu, Larkana, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Nawabshah and other towns against the BTK-police action.

Mr Shah said a meeting would be held at his residence in Jamshoro on May 17 to take stock of the situation and decide further course of action. Leaders of all nationalist parties and groups were invited to attend the meeting, he added.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2021