KARACHI, Dec 11: Five people were injured when police opened fire at villagers protesting against the demolition of their houses in G. M. Nagar, near Ghaggar railway crossing, in Bin Qasim Town on Tuesday.

Later, unknown people set fire to two vehicles following a demonstration on the nearby section of the National Highway accusing police of breaking into their houses and beating up women and children.

The trouble started when an anti-encroachment team escorted by police and railway police personnel started demolishing the houses with the help of some 15 bulldozers.

Affected villagers, Masood, Shahnawaz and others told

PPI that police opened fire when the villagers offered resistance.

They claimed that five villagers, one of them identified as Mustafa Qureshi, sustained bullet injuries.

The affected villagers, including women and children, staged a protest demonstration and sit-in on the National Highway, disrupting movement of vehicular traffic for several hours.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, a former speaker of the Sindh Assembly, has criticised the demolition operation. He said that the city had a huge number of katchi abadis where people coming from all parts of the country had been residing for years.

In a statement, he regretted that the administration would always demolish katchi abadis of Sindhi people.

He urged the relevant authorities to get such operations stopped immediately.—PPI