THATTA: About 600 acres of state land has been occupied by influential land-grabbers in Kohistan range near Jhimpir town and mukhtiarkar of Thatta has sought help from district administration for launching a large-scale anti-encroachment operation in the area to retrieve the land.

The mukhtiarkar has written a letter to Thatta district commissioner requesting him to provide a strong contingent of police for the operation, according to sources.

The letter said that the land-grabbers had in connivance with brokers and influential persons managed to have false documents prepared in order to usurp the vast area. Heads of locally dominant Bugti tribe were involved in the land grabbing, it said.

The mukhtiarkar said that in view of a recent incident in which revenue officials were killed by land grabbers during an anti-encroachment drive in Karachi, all appropriate measures needed to be taken to protect local revenue officials. There were strong fears of resistance by land grabbers, he said.

The sources in the department said that they were going to launch operation in different areas of Thatta district against land mafia from Dec 1. The land-grabbers had sold out a large area to builders of Karachi who were going to start construction on the occupied land, they said.

They said that a vast area stretching up to Nooriabad and Looni Kot comprising thousands of acres had been occupied by land grabbers who enjoyed patronage of politicians.

In past, several attempts has been made to retrieve the land but to no avail.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2022