HYDERABAD: Scores of policemen and protesters were injured when occupants of several hundred concrete houses and other structures reacted violently to an anti-encroachment drive launched on Tuesday morning in Qasimabad. Enraged protesters, many of them claiming ownership of their respective property, pelted vehicles of the the demolition squad, police and local administration with stones. At least 11 policemen, including a bodyguard of the Qasimabad assistant commissioner, were injured in the clash. The actual number of protesters and other people injured in the violence could not be ascertained. The violent reaction forced the demolition squad and supervising officials, as well as the escorting police team, to retreat and suspend the drive. Occupants of around 400 concrete structures face eviction; insist on ownership of their properties However, they returned along with a stronger contingent of police, who also faced a stiff resistance. The police resorted to massive teargas shelling to disperse protesters. Failing to bring the situation under control, the police also started aerial firing to scare away the violent crowd. Electricity supply to the area was suspended. The anti-encroachment drive was launched in Bhitai Town, off Jamshoro road, to clear the land before building a 24ft-wide road and restoring an abandoned irrigation channel in Qasimabad taluka. According to Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Zain Ul Abiden Memon, 11 police personnel received injuries in the violence. The DC, who visited the troubled area, said: “We have to build the road between Karan Khan Shoro and Wadhu Wah. The 2.7km road is being built by the highway department whereas the irrigation channel is to be restored by the irrigation department”. “We are procuring more machinery to clear the path by demolishing all of these structures. Around one kilometre stretch is to be cleared of encroachments,” he said, adding that a survey conducted by the Qasimabad AC found that 350-400 structures existed along this stretch. Some of the affected residents told Dawn that they had received notices asking them to vacate their properties in the area before the demolition drive but some others denied having received any. “I can’t name the person who had sold to me the 7,750sq-ft plot for Rs850,000,” said Sobhat Odh. He said he had been living here for the last 25 years. According to Jawaid Mastoi, actually belonging to Larkana, “we have been living here since 2010 on a plot stretched over 1,800 sq-ft after moving to Hyderabad in 2007”. He said he purchased this plot from one, Javed Bhatti. “We were provided with utilities like gas and electricity, and no organisation had objected to this at that time,” he said. Some angry women came out of their houses to offer resistance to the drive. “Why were we provided electricity and gas meters if our properties were illegal?” argued a screaming woman who had covered her face with her scarf. The affected residents also claimed that the local irrigation officials had charged and collected from them the cost of the construction of their houses as well. The Executive Engineer of Kotri Barrage’s Baghar Circle, Tariq Ursani, told Dawn that a total of 23 RDs (reduced distances) of Wadhu Wah were being rehabilitated and of them nine (or a stretch of 66ft right of way) were under encroachment. He said that three to four RDs had been cleared so far.