Shop owners clashed with police forcing the latter to use tear gas and baton charge as authorities began anti-encroachment drive at Karachi’s Aladdin park on Supreme Court orders.
As per details, authorities began demolishing Pavilion End Club and other shops constructed at Karachi’s Aladdin Amusement Park on Tuesday (today) after Supreme Court declared it illegal and ordered its demolition within two days.
The shop owners attempted to prevent authorities from bulldozing the shopping mall constructed at Aladdin Park Amusement Park forcing the police to disperse the crowd in order to execute SC orders.
Several people are reported to have been injured due to tear gas shelling and police’s baton charge.
Bashir Siddique – Director Anti-Encroachment, who is leading the operation has reaffirmed that the department is committed to fulfil SC orders despite immense resistance from the shop owners.
Meanwhile, the flow of traffic was also severely affected due to clashes between police and protesting shop owners as the latter blocked the road from Nipa to Gulistan-e-Johar.
During the operation, a restaurant located on the premises was forced to evacuate with all its equipment shifted onto a truck.
It is pertinent to know that SC during a hearing at its Karachi Registry on Monday a day earlier, had directed authorities to clear Aladdin Park land of various commercial constructions most notable Aladdin Mall and Pavilion End Club at the premises.
Prior to this, the top court had ordered the demolition of the under-construction residential-cum-commercial multistorey Royal Park building adjacent to Aladin Park and had declared the lease of a two-acre plot, located on Rashid Minhas Road, illegal, while directing the authorities concerned to demolish the under-construction building.
