Karachi:
Police fired aerial gunshots and tear gas shells on the encroachers, protesting for an cleaning operation against them in surrounding the monumental and historic Empress Market, which is densely occupied by the hundreds of illegal stall holders and vendors.
The situation became tense when police arrived to support the anti-encroachment cell. The cell started removing stalls and handcarts from the vicinity of the Empress Market when the owners of the cart and stalls resisted the police.
The police had to fire gunshots and later they fired tear gas shells to disperse the agitating encroachers.
Built in late 19th century in the British Raj and named after Queen Vitoria, the market has been a hallmark of this mega city and a key shopping place for groceries and all kind of household items.
Police has begun launching intermittent crackdowns on encroachers after the Supreme Court of Pakistan took up the Karachi law and order case in 2011 and the subsequent hearings brought to light land-grabbing and encroachment was one of the prime reasons behind the bloody killings in Karachi.
However, the encroachers with the backing of mafia and political pressure groups in connivance with corrupt police officials re-encroach prime land around the Empress Market till pressure is built on the administration and the police to get the state land vacated.
In its verdict on the case, the apex court observed land, arms and drug mafia predominantly thrive upon unrest in the city. The failure of law enforcement agencies, the court said, was a safe haven for such mafias, which encroach upon state land and their whereabouts were not traceable.
Early this week, Sindh High Court issued non-bailable warrants against provincial police chief and a sector commander of Paramilitary Rangers for their failure to appear in a land encroachment case. In the case, the land could not be evacuated by its illegal occupants despite court orders months ago.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain also warned his party leaders against the land grabbing. In a statement, Hussain said that ‘land grabbing and nepotism will be dealt with strongly and there was no place of such elements in MQM.”
