KARACHI: A clash broke out between police and several hundred encroachers of a piece of state-owned land situated opposite the University of Karachi on Tuesday when the anti-encroachment staff of the Karachi Development Authorities tried to evict them.

The protesting encroachers, who had raised over 500 huts on the land, proceeded to the nearby section of University Road and held a sit-in, blocking the thoroughfare soon after the anti-encroachment staff escorted by police and Rangers personnel started the operation at about 8am.

The protesters pelted the KDA staff and police personnel with stones and some of them also allegedly set their own structures and paraphernalia on fire in a bid to get the operation stopped.

Eyewitnesses said that the anti-encroachment staff along with Gulistan-i-Jauhar police and Rangers personnel faced stiff resistance from the encroachers when they tried to demolish and remove the illegal structures. The encroachers attacked the staffers and police with stones. Seven of the anti-encroachment staffers were injured.

They said that following a series of skirmishes at the site, the protesters proceeded to the University Road blocking the thoroughfare and disrupting vehicular traffic, causing a great deal of inconvenience to commuters.

The police said that they had to apply baton-charge to disperse the protesters when they turned violent during the operation, aimed at retrieving over the one-kilometer-long stretch.

The police said that the occupants of the land were mainly beggar families and many of their men were involved in criminal activities, like mugging, robberies and drugs peddling.

The police further stated that the Karachi University administration had also complained to the authorities that the illegal settlement had become a hideout for criminals, adding that the suspects involved in the recent killing of a student of the NED University were also reported to have fled into the settlement where over 2,000 people lived.

The police said that some of the occupants set their hutments on fire a little after noon to avert the anti-encroachment operation but the firefighters rushed the spot and put it out. One of the firefighters sustained burns during the operation, they said.

KDA Director General Syed Muhammad Ali Shah told Dawn that a main water conduit of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and a pipeline of the Sui Southern Gas Company passed through the encroached land. The encroachers posed a serious threat to the utilities’ infrastructure, he said.

Published in Dawn, january 4th, 2023