Men posing as IDPs eye land, buildings: police

KARACHI: As flood-affected people continue to stream into relief camps here from different parts of the province, an organised campaign to grab government and private land has emerged as a serious challenge to the authorities to restrain land-grabbers masquerading as internally displaced persons.

Government officials, however, claim to have already wrested back more than half a dozen pieces of property in minor or major police operations.

A major incident was witnessed only on Monday when two young men were killed and nearly a dozen others, including four policemen, wounded in an exchange of fire between the police and gunmen in Safoora Goth.

A police team had gone to a new housing project near the Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine in Scheme 33 to get it vacated from the ‘land-grabbers’ who had occupied it pretending to be flood-affected people, where it came under attack.

“This was a major attempt of encroachment by persons pretending to be flood victims,” said a police official citing incidents so far reported to the police authorities for action. “Apart from that, a number of complaints were received in Bin Qasim and Gadap towns, where police successfully met the target and got the pieces of land vacated from the land-grabbers.”

He said so far only one such completed project was occupied by ‘land-grabbers’, as in seven other cases people set up camps on open land, mainly in the two towns, faking as internally displaced persons.

“Three such complaints were received each in Bin Qasim and Gadap towns while a single case was handled within the remit of the Maripur police station, where lands for different residential or other schemes were occupied by people pretending to be flood-affectees.

An attempt to encroach on land along the Malir riverbed was also foiled. All these activities were done within a week,” he added.

Currently more than 30,000 people displaced by the devastating floods in different parts of the province are living in nearly two dozen relief camps set up by the government across Karachi.

However, the latest situation sets alarms bell ringing in the quarters concerned as the builders who, after the Monday incident feared more such attempts by professional land-grabbers in the garb of flood-affectees, have approached the police authorities to coordinate prompt action in any other such case.

“Other than the Monday incident in Safoora Goth, so far we have not witnessed any attempt on any ready-to-occupy project,” said Farooq-uz-Zaman, the chairman of the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD).

“But there are complaints of grabbing of private properties by professionals feigning to be flood-affectees. We have been coordinating with the police authorities to help curb such activities.”

The police high-ups, though satisfied with the recent performance of their force, admit that the scattered attempts to take over built-up property as well as land were planned and executed by organised groups, which enjoyed support of political parties.

“They are professional land-grabbers,” said Waseem Ahmed, capital city police officer. “They are very much political activists and associated with parties.

We have conveyed our message to ABAD asking them to point out those areas where such attempts are being made and assured them we would definitely take action.”

He said the police had so far managed to foil every attempt of encroaching private property and grabbing of land. He said the Monday action reflected the police’s resolve without any discrimination.

“Lately, a few attempts were also made on the land along the Malir riverbed by people pretending to be flood victims, but we moved fast and got it evacuated,” added the CCPO.