ISLAMABAD, July 9: Seven-month-old baby Kamran Khan has spent nearly six months of his life on the footpath in front of the National Press Club as 18 members of his family protest against harassment and forceful eviction by a feudal lord in Dadu, Sindh.

The family, which includes nine women, allege that a wadera in Goth Maro, tehsil Khairpur Nathan, district Dadu, has forcefully occupied 70 acres of agricultural land owned by them and harassed them out from their area. However, in all the six months since they have been camping out, not a single human rights activist, politician or official of the Supreme Court bothered to visit them, Dawn has learnt.

Kamran, who was born in December 2011 and has been in front of the NPC since January 1, 2012, can be seen on most days crawling and playing with his cousins, Safia (4 years), Sakina (7), Samina (10) and Seema (11 years old) completely oblivious that his actual house is about 1,400 kilometres away.

His family is determined that they will not leave the spot till someone takes notice of their plight and provide them with justice.

Imran Khan, a 16-year-old young man part of the family, told Dawn that in 2006 Raees Liaquat Chandio wanted to grab their agricultural land.

“Liaquat alleged that my uncle Daad Hussain had kidnapped his daughter in-law, Nadira Bibi, and after torturing the family, he declared Daad Husain ‘karo’ (involved in immoral activities). We were forced to leave the village when he got a fatwa issued that first Daad should be killed and then Nadira. However, just three days later, his daughter-in-law came back to his house,” Imran claimed.

“We have been trying to get justice but no one in the area wants to go against Liaquat, who has been cultivating our land for the last five years. We cannot even think of entering our own village,” he said.

Meanwhile, Naseeban Bibi, sister in-law of Daad Hussain, added: “We contacted the district police officer (DPO) but he refused to listen to us. My husband Nizam Din is in the Pakistan Army for the last 17 years, and he filed a complaint with it. The Pakistan Army sent a letter to the DPO but the latter wrote back that the feudal lord was innocent.”

“We have all the documents of our land and we have also filed an application with the office of Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry but the court has not taken notice,” she said.

When Dawn spoke to Daad Hussain, the man at the centre of the imbroglio, he said: “Raees Liaquat hid his daughter-in-law because he wanted to occupy our land. He has done the same in the past as well with other people, and knows he can get away with it. Anything is possible for him.”

Daad Hussain lamented that even though the colours of their banners that were tied outside their camp in front of NPC had faded, no one had bothered to contact the family members.

“We appeal to the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the incident and call the relevant persons to unveil facts,” he requested.