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Surjani Town SHO injured as illegal occupants attack anti-encroachment team

By our correspondents
April 27, 2017

Another anti-encroachment drive in the city turned violent on Wednesday as the Surjani Town SHO was wounded in an attack by people accused of illegally occupying the Karachi Development Authority's (KDA) plots in Surjani Town’s Sector-II.

Residents started pelting stones on an anti-encroachment cell (AEC) team and police officials when they reached the site on the concluding day of their operation against illegal occupation of KDA plots. 

Surjani Town SHO Ghulam Hussain Korai was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for treatment after he sustained injuries on his head.

Surjani Town head mohrir Arshad Hussain said two people were arrested for attacking the officials and the police would conduct raids to arrest the other attackers.

The AEC team, however, concluded the anti-encroachment drive in Surjani Town amid strict security and all illegal settlements established have been removed.

Sindh IG AD Khowaja has sought a report from the West DIG about this incident and ordered the arrests of all attackers.

The attack came from residents on the last day of the anti-encroachment drive that started on April 17 to end occupation on the KDA land. 

Till April 21, the AEC had razed a portion encroached on the KDA land but the operation was halted as there was no female police officer to bar women from creating hindrances.

The drive resumed on Tuesday but area residents attacked the AEC staff and the police with stones and sticks. Women and children were also among those who threw stones on the AEC team, the KDA Scheme 41 project director and the police.

During the attack on Tuesday, an occupant tried to commit suicide by setting himself on fire, but area residents stopped him from doing so.

In view of the rising tensions, Surjani Town SHO Ghulam Hussain Korai had requested his seniors to deploy extra security.

Talking to The News, West SSP Nasir Aftab confirmed that the SHO had called in extra force due to resistance from area residents.

“However, the SHO reached the spot to start the drive in absence of the required security,” the SSP said. 

The operation in Surjani Town was being conducted in view of the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) order that came in 2012 for removal of encroachment from residential plots of KDA Scheme 41. Earlier on April 5, residents of Machar Colony, a neighborhood of Keamari Town, had attacked AEC officials and also torched their vehicle and shovel when they reached the town to start an anti-encroachment drive.