KARACHI, Feb 1 Despite repeated requests from the federal government, the Sindh government has taken no action against the influential people who had carried out illegal burials in the Kalhoro tombs, a site protected under the Antiquities Act 1975, it has been learnt.

The tombs of the Kalhoro dynasty, which had once ruled over Sindh, are located in Hirabad, the centre of Hyderabad, and because of their beautiful architecture the monuments - popularly known as `Miran ja Quba` - have been declared a protected site under the Antiquities Act, where activities such as burials are not allowed.

The act prescribes long prison terms as well as heavy fines for the violators, but being influential people, usually no action is taken against the violators, which encourages others to carry out the illegal act.

Sources said that the federal archaeology department could not take any punitive action against the violators and had to rely on local police to help it stop the activity.

The police come under the provincial government and the people carrying out illegal activities at the site were well-connected, hence the police did not take any action against them. Even an FIR could not be registered against the culprits, the sources added.

Responding to Dawn`s queries, the Islamabad-based federal archaeology department`s director-general, Dr Fazaldad Kakar, said that the department had approached the provincial government, from the local level at Hyderabad to the top level - the chief secretary - regarding the continuous violation and non-cooperation of the police but so far, as far as he knew, no concrete action was taken against culprits.

The sources claimed that those buried illegally in the Kalhoro tombs included Ather Hussain Jatoi, the grandson of the Sindh Hari (farmers) Movement leader Comrade Haider Bux Jatoi. He was buried in June 2008.

Earlier, Haider Bux Jatoi and his wife Mumtaz Jatoi, who both died in 1970, were buried there. Their sons Mazhar Jatoi and Dadan Jatoi were also buried there.

A superintendent of police, Abdul Ghani, and his family, who had died in a road accident near Quetta in 1996, were buried in the Kalhoro tombs, said the sources.

Barkat Qadri, who is the father of an influential Sindh home department official, Ghazanfar Qadri, was also buried there in April 2006.

They said that Mulkan Begum, who was the wife of a former SP, Bux Ali Qadri, and mother of ADIG Saleh Qadri, DSP Altaf Qadri and Prof Amir Qadri of the Tando Jam Agriculture University, was buried there in January 2006.

Folk musician and singer Faqir Abdul Ghafoor was buried there in 1986 and Maulana Ghulam Mustafa Qasmi was also buried there under the supervision of a former culture secretary.

Responding to Dawn`s queries, the chief of the archaeology department of Sindh and Balochistan region, Dr Mohammad Arif, said that the department staffers had always tried to stop illegal burials at the site but remained powerless in the presence of influential people.

The police - whenever present at a burial - supported the illegal activity as the bodies being illegally buried were usually of the relatives of high officials, he added.

Sometimes even the staffers of the archaeology department were `detained` in police mobiles present till the completion of the burial, he said.

Citing an example, the Hyderabad-based Dr Arif said that in the incident of the illegal burial of Barkat Qadri in 2006, the department had approached the chief secretary, who had ordered the home department to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

However the report, which should have been completed in a few weeks, was still - after the passage of a couple of years - awaited.

Dr Fazaldad Kakar said that unless stern action was taken against the culprits such illegalities could not be checked.

He said that even a re-survey of the Makli necropolis - where a local landlord, Ghulam Qadir Palijo, the father of Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Palijo, had allegedly carried out excavation for a drain and a check-dam in the protected area - had not yet been conducted.

Mr Palijo claims that he was carrying out work on his lands.

The sources said that the government had failed to take action against the lawbreakers as they were influential and well-connected people.

They said it also showed the importance the government gave to heritage.