THATTA, Dec 14: Residents of several villages of deh Kohistan have complained of forcible ejection from their ancestral lands by the personnel of a law enforcement agency. At a press conference here on Thursday, Faiz Mohammad, Raza Mohammad, Ladho Ganjo, Arab Chang and others of Harolo, Digro, Chakhri, Valhari, Gattan and other villages told newsmen that personnel of a law enforcement agency, along with heavy machinery, erected cemented pillars around their villages and agricultural lands spread over 20,000 acres.

They were also preparing to fence the area with barbed wires. The villagers said that the area being occupied includes surveyed as well as un-surveyed lands and villages and vowed that they will not leave their ancestral abodes. They appealed to Sindh chief minister to save their lands and settlements.

When contacted, an official of the district revenue department, on condition of anonymity, said that the force has been assigned to install wind mills and its power generating plants in the area and the Board of Revenue had allotted them 5,000 acres of land.

He claimed that notices were served to all concerned land holders but only a few of them responded.

DUD GRENADES: Seven hand grenades were recovered during excavation of a watercourse in Karam Mangi village, two kilometres from Thatta town, late on Wednesday night.

The District Police Officer (DPO), Ghulam Hyder Jamali, told newsmen that during excavation at RD-30, the digging team found a gunny bag containing dud hand grenades with “1969 POF” embossed on each of them. The DPO said that he had called a bomb disposal squad from Karachi to inspect the grenades.