SUKKUR: Members of the Qureshi community living in this district took out a rally against alleged tampering in the land record of their village.
They marched on various streets raising slogans against ‘attempts to grab their ancestral lands’ by incorporating layout plans of certain housing schemes without going for legal procedures.
Representing residents of Qureshi Goth, Salahuddin Qureshi, Ghulam Yasin Qureshi, Ali Mardan Sheikh and others told media personnel outside the Sukkur Press Club that it was a centuries-old village and there had been proper entries of their properties in the land record.
However, they lamented, attempts had now been made to grab their lands by tampering with the record to execute certain housing and commercial projects.
They said that Qureshi Goth had been inhabited by generations of Qureshi community but its lands were being incorporated in its landscaped through maps.
‘We will use every constitutional and legal means to protect our ancestral land; we will not surrender any part of it under any circumstances,’ they said.
He demanded a fair investigation into the alleged tampering and manipulation in the land record.
They recalled that government had acquired some pieces of land in the village and promised compensation against the deal but the owners of these lands never received any compensation.
Ghulam Yasin Qureshi, a former chief engineer, said that Qureshi Goth had an ancient graveyard where some graves were hundreds of years old.
He said that some documents dating back to 1898 also mentioned existence of the settlement.
‘If parts of the land were required for any government or private project, the authorities concerned would have to follow the legal land acquisition process, serve notices to the owners and pay compensation to them according to relevant laws,’ he said.
The protesters appealed the Sindh government, district administration and revenue authorities to conduct a survey of Qureshi Goth, look into the alleged illegal activities and safeguard rights of its residents.