HYDERABAD, Nov 28: Amid security measures and strong protest by people, the civil administration and railway authorities launched a campaign to remove encroachments in the Mir Fateh Colony here on Saturday following a prolonged controversy between residents of the colony and the management of an oil mill.
The operation was launched in the morning and it continued till late evening during the course of which fire also broke out in kutcha huts. The residents blamed the authorities for burning the huts while the officials said the people themselves torched their huts to put pressure on the administration to cancel the anti-encroachment drive.
The campaign has been launched under orders of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, as residents did not possess valid documents of the colony. A heavy contingent of Rangers and police was deployed since morning right from the Guddu Chowk to the Kotri Railway Bridge.
The force was also deployed on the Hyderabad-Kotri railway track where two blasts had taken place on Nov 20. The residents had blamed the mill management for masterminding the blasts to harass them.
Witnesses said heavy machinery was used to demolish unauthorized constructions, prompting the residents to come out of their houses and block the Hyderabad-Kotri road.
The residents also pelted stones on police and a passengers train. They also blocked the railway track for some time, suspending the flow of railway traffic for some time. However, police brought the situation under control.
The residents said they had earlier been living in a nearby land of Wapda but the authorities had shifted them to the kutchi abadi in Mir Fateh Colony. They said they had been given utility connections in the colony and enrolled in the electoral rolls.
Two residents, Mahboob Khan and Ghulam Rasool, said the campaign had been launched without serving notices on them with the result that they could not pick up their luggage for shifting. They said they were being shifted to Sehrish Nagar where armed Khoso clansmen were not ready to allow them to settle.
Ambulance and fire fighters were also available on the spot. The residents were sitting with their luggage on the main road till Sunday evening. The officials assured them that they would be shifted under proper arrangements and given documents.
The residents said they could not construct houses on their own and added that they would not shift to other place if they were not provided with proper accommodation.
People's Party Parliamentarians MPA Zahid Bhurgari said he had tried to get a copy of the high court order directing removal of encroachments from the government land. He said he would raise the issue in the Sindh Assembly so that an alternative accommodation could be arranged for the residents.
The MPA was provided the copy of the court order by the deputy superintendent, railway, Junaid Qureshi, whose bailable warrants had been issued in the sum of Rs25,000 by a division bench of the Sindh High Court in the same matter. The railway official has to appear before the court on Dec 1.
The management of the Mehran Oil Mill had filed a petition in the court, seeking removal of encroachments in vicinity of the mill. The court had directed the DCO to ensure demolition of unauthorized construction.
Eleven residents of the colony had also filed an application, praying the court to allow them to become a party in the matter because the mill management had concealed facts in the petition.
On Nov 20, a meeting, presided over by the DCO, had decided to shift the residents to Sehrish Nagar by Nov 27. Meanwhile, residents of Sehrish Nagar observed a token hunger strike outside the local press club against shifting of the people of Mir Fateh Colony to their area.
They appealed to the government not to shift the residents of the colony to Sehrish Nagar because it was allotted to Sindhi families displaced during ethnic riots in Hyderabad.