MITHI:The high-ups of the Sindh government have miserably failed to stop the miners of the private company from carrying on with granite extraction in precious granite stones at Charinda village in Parkar region despite the continued protests by the people of the Tharparkar region.
The people belonging to different walks of life have been on the roads to register their protest against the extraction despite the strict ban imposed by the double bench of Sindh High Court some months back.
The protest rallies and demonstrations started in Tharparkar district nearly two weeks back when some of the leaders of Karoonjhar Sujag Forum including Alla Rakhio Khoso, Zulfikar Ali Khoso, Ghulam Mustafa Dal, Sagir Khaskheli and others on the complaint of the villages visited the site and they had found employees and workers hired by Kohinoor Mining Company were busy in the extraction with heavy machinery and doing the massive damage to one of the hills of the Karoonjhar without any let or check by the officials of the mines and minerals department.
The leaders of the forum, which was formed last year to raise their voice over the repeated attempts by the various mining company to extract the granite and gravel of Karoonjhar hills from different points, reportedly informed the officials, who were strictly directed by the double bench of Sindh High Court Hyderabad to ensure the protection and preservation of the hills but having found not response from the local officials, they decided to come on the roads first in the hilly town of Nagarparkar town to register their peaceful protesters along with traders and people from other walks of life and demanded the immediate actions against those involved in the illegal act but of o use.
When contacted the leaders of the forum informed this reporter that they had also contacted Mr Qasim Siraj Soomro, the PPP MPA from Parkar but he advised them to again file the fresh petition in the court against the miners.
They claimed that though he was very much concerned about the illegal extraction, those taking interest in the extraction and mining of the minerals were not obeying the orders of the officials of the Sindh government. ” He however, assured us to exert pressure on the owners of the company to stop work and asked us to better go to the court” they claimed.
The leaders heaped their scorn on the PPP Senator Krishna Jumari Kolhi and her brother Verrji, the Special Assistant to Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah for the criminal silence over the extraction near to their native village and suspected that they might have involvement in such illegal and ugy act. They asked bth Ms Kumari and her brother to clarify their positions at the time when people of the area were directly accusing them of their patronage to the miners for their alleged petty interests.
The leaders said that the workers as well as common people were registering their protests everyday in different towns of Tharparkar demanding the actions against the miners while they were busy in mobilising the people to launch the effective movement against the extraction of granite by companies, which were given the permits by government to extract granite from different points.
While, Fakir Arshad Kumbhar, the local activist , who at the forefront in mobilising the people on different issues of Thar said that the leaders of Thar Sujag Sath including Salim Samejo, Akash Haimrai, Dileep Doshi and others were all set to organise public gathering in Mithi on Sunday to chalk out the strategy to agitate the issue at all the available forum of the country tin order to protect Karoonjhar hills from further damage, devastation and the destruction at the hands of the greedy contractors and miners.
He said that leaders of the forum had already invited the politicians, experts, activists and people from different walks of life country to participate in the mood to guide them in their sincere efforts to save the beauty of the Karoonjhar hills from the evil eyes.
