Sindh

My land or yours? Korangi residents demand release of arrested men

Police insist these families are encroaching on someone else's plots

Our Correspondent May 11, 2015

The protesters accused an officer of the Korangi Industrial Area police station of arresting these men only to release them after taking bribes from the families. PHOTO-MOHAMMAD AZEEM/EXPERSS

KARACHI: The women and children of Korangi protested outside Karachi Press Club on Monday to demand the release of their men from police custody.

Six residents of Mehran Town have apparently been picked up by the law enforcers on alleged encroachment charges. The protesters accused an officer of the Korangi Industrial Area police station of arresting these men only to release them after taking bribes from the families.

"We have been living in Sharifabad for the past 20 years," said one of the only two men standing among the protesting women and children. The residents refer to Mehran Town's Sector 6 as 'Sharifabad'. "Police are troubling us on purpose because they themselves are involved in organised land encroachment."

The residents have requested the Sindh government save them from the cruelties of the police and provide protection. "The police demanded we pay them Rs100,000 when we went to get the men out on bail," the man claimed, adding that the law enforcers came to their house at night and then arrested these six men.

Korangi Industrial Area police station SHO Amjad Yamin denied these allegations and instead accused some Magsi men of being involved in land grabbing. These men are sending these families to stage protests, he claimed. "If you go to their plot, you will see there are only women and children there and each of them is asking for Rs100,000 to relocate."

SHO Yamin pointed out that Major Abdul Wahid, the man who owns the four 400-square-yard plots encroached by these families, filed a complaint with them. The police officer said these plots were given to overseas Pakistanis by the Karachi Development Authority in 1973. As time passed, Mehran Town started being encroached upon by land grabbers, he added.