MOHAJIR LOCALITIES DEMOLISHED, THOUSANDS FORCIBLY EVICTED AND RENDERED HOMELESS ON THE PRETEXT OF REMOVING ENCROACHMENT.

Karachi.
December 28, 1998

Article 24 (1) of the Constitution of Pakistan states: "No person shall be compulsorily deprived of his property save in accordance with law".

Article 17 (2) of The International Bill of Human Rights states: "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property".

On 26^th. December 1998, at around 11.00 a.m., the Government of Sindh, on the directives of the Federal Government, instructed the Police to enter Azam Nagar and Mohammadi Colony in Liaquatabad, Karachi and demolish these localities completely. The Police as per directions of the Government of Sindh, entered the said localities and razed down more than 200 houses, thus rendering thousands of men, women and innocent children homeless. This inhuman act was carried out on the pretext of removing encroachments. This is the continuation of the on-going policies of the Federal Government for the persecution of Mohajirs. Demolition of these Mohajir localities was carried out on the basis of racism with impunity and vengeance.

The Government, on the one hand, claiming the on-going Operation in Karachi to be even handed whereas on the other, only one community, the Mohajirs, and their representative political party, the MQM, are being targeted. It is known to every Karachiite that there are hundreds of non-Mohajir unauthorised Katchi Abadis (shantytowns) all over Karachi, but none of them has been demolished on the pretext of encroachment.

The Government claims that these settlements were illegally built or were in unauthorised occupation. Whereas the relevant Authorities had regularised and formally allotted those plots granting the dwellers the right of ownership. It is to be noted that these localities have been in existence since twenty-five years.

While demolishing the Mohajir localities, the Police personnel used abusive language. The men, women and innocent children were kicked about, brutally tortured and manhandled. These families are now helpless and destitute, living under the open sky and sleeping on the ground, exposed to severe cold and calamities.

We fear that forcible eviction of thousands of people has added a dangerous dimension in the elimination process of Mohajirs besides their physical, social and political elimination. This is ingraining a renewed sense of alienation amongst the Mohajir mindset and is explicitly seen as the "Punjabisation" of Sindh and its forcible colonisation with the view to enslave the Mohajirs in particular and the indigenous people of Sindh in general.

This act is a manifest of the fascist policy of the Government of Nawaz Sharif against Mohajirs and the MQM while the racism and apartheid is a crime against humanity according to Article 20, paragraph 2, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.