NAWABSHAH, Jan 24: The villagers of Jiando Merasi staged a demonstration outside the press club here on Thursday against their eviction by the administration of the Quaid-i-Awam University.

The protesters led by Zakir Hussain Khaki, Rasool Bux Merasi, Akbar Merasi also staged a hunger strike camp outside the press club.

UC-1 Nazim Hussain Bughio, Nawabshah taluka PPP’s President Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, general secretary Noor Nawaz Dahiri also visited the camp and extended their support to the villagers.

The villagers said they had been living on the land since 1877 where a mosque and an old graveyard also exist.

They alleged that the university administration illegally wanted to construct a hostel on there land and they appealed to the Sindh government for justice.

On the other hand, the university’s registrar, Dr Noor Ahmed Memon, students affairs director Manzoor Ahmed Panhwar, project director Masood Ahmed Jamal told reporters at the press club that in 1974 the land requisition officer allotted the 457 acre plot to the university of which some was private land, against which compensation was paid to the owners according to the rules and regulations. They also claimed that the land of village Jiando Merasi, which is on seven acres, was also allotted to the university.

Earlier, the university administration tried to get vacated the land by approaching notables of the area, but the villagers demanded Rs6 million from the university for vacating the plot, which was not acceptable to the university, they said.

The villagers had also filed a lawsuit in a local court, which was disposed of by the judge.

The officials said the villagers had encroached upon the land of the university hostel, a dhobi ghat (a place where washermen wash clothes), and service road and recently they also stopped the construction of a boundary wall of the under-construction hostel.

They further said that the matter was pending with the sessions court and the university administration would accept the court decision.