HYDERABAD: Activists of nationalist parties took out rallies and held demonstrations in a number of Sindh towns on Sunday in response to call for protest given by Sindh Progressive Committee and Sindh Indigenous Rights Alliance against excesses of Bahria Town and other mega housing projects.

In Hyderabad, a rally was organised by Sindh Indigenous Rights Alliance on against Bahria Town, other mega housing projects as well as enforced disappearance of an activist, Seengar Noonari.

Comrade Bakhshal Thallu, Aslam Parvez Umrani, Comrade Iqbal Khan and others said in their speeches before the rally’s participants outside local press club that Bahria Town Karachi was not a project of development but it was aimed at displacing local people and occupy Sindhi people’s land.

They said that hidden powers in collusion with men like Malik Riaz and provincial and federal governments wanted to occupy Sindh’s boundaries in Thar, Kohistan and middle Sindh.

They said that Noonari was picked up few days back and his whereabouts remained unknown. Political activists were languishing in jails after being slapped with false cases, they said.

They said that bulldozer of capitalism was demolishing villages in rural areas and katchi abadis in urban centres.

HRCP Sindh coordinator Imdad Chandio, Ameer Azad Panhwar of Sindh United Party, Sindh Hari Committee’s Manzoor Thaheem and others also joined the protest.

LARKANA: Nationalist parties’ activists brought out a rally and demonstrated outside press club in response to call for protest given by Sindh Progressive Committee and Sindh Indi­genous Rights Alliance.

The leaders of almost all component parties of Sindh Action Committee like Awami Workers Party, Sindh United Party, Jeay Sindh Mahaz, who led the protest, alleged Sindh’s land was being dished out at throwaway rates to influential builders on the pretext of mega development projects. These unscrupulous builders then dismantled old settlements and rendered agriculture land barren with huge constructions, they said.

They said that activists like Seengar Noonari of Awami Workers Party who raised voice against such injustices were booked in different cases to gag their voice.

They demanded immediate release of Noonari, Sanan Qureshi and others and urged the government to provide alternate residential facilities to residents of Gujjar nullah and Orangi nullah before dispossessing them.

MIRPURKHAS: Dozens of activists of nationalist parties held a demonstration outside press club on Sunday under the aegis of Sindh Indigenous Rights Alliance and Sindh Progressive Committee to protest against Bahria Town, DHA and other mega housing projects.

The protesters’ leaders Zahoor Leghari, Ramzan Dal, Taj Baloch and others demanded a halt to attempts to occupy land by Bahria Town, DHA and other mega housing projects.

They alleged that old Sindhi villages were being demolished to occupy land. Outsiders were grabbing Sindh’s land from Karachi to Jamshoro on the pretext of building housing schemes, they said.

They said that courts had given a decision against Bahria Town but its owner Malik Riaz did not accept the verdict which was a clear affront to judiciary. Sindhi people would never accept occupation of their land by unscrupulous tycoons, they warned.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2021