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Article

28 May 2021

Author:
Shah Meer Baloch, The Guardian

Pakistan: Villagers protesting evictions and Bahria Town luxury estate expansion met with violence and arrests

‘They fired at everyone’: peril of Pakistani villagers protesting giant luxury estate', 28 May 2021

Muhammad Anwar was not aware of any danger when he took the day off work to join his friends at a demonstration on a construction site of a powerful real estate company. When Anwar, 35, reached the west bank of Langeji river, near Karachi, earlier this month, he saw the bulldozers levelling land next to Bahria Town, a luxury gated development. About 100 demonstrators were protesting against what they say is a forceful takeover of indigenous land... With a bullet wound to his stomach and facial injuries, Anwar was lucky that his friends got him to hospital. Others, like Jan Sher Jukhio, were taken to the police station by Bahria Town guards. Jukhio says he was beaten with the butt of a gun... Indigenous communities have opposed the Karachi project since its launch in 2014. The latest clashes began in April as activists resisted work to expand the housing complex into nearby villages... On 30 April, PPP chair Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told Bahria Town and Sindh police to halt evictions in the villages. But bulldozers returned on 7 May and protests against the development saw 12 people, apart from Anwar and Jukhio, injured... Communities in Karachi’s Malir district rely on farming for their livelihoods. Bahria Town is one of Asia’s largest private property developers, with construction projects in cities across Pakistan. Its owner, Malik Riaz Hussain, has denied any involvement in the evictions. “Bahria Town was never part of any illegal activities nor [do] we intend to be in future,” he tweeted...

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