By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Aid groups working in Pakistan’s hardest hit areas of flooding are saying that large landowners and other wealthy citizens have deliberately directed the flow of floodwaters into the villages of poor Hindu and Christian minorities to save their own farmlands.
Agenzia Fides, the Vatican’s news service, is reporting that Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, has confirmed to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) that there is evidence that landowners had allowed embankments to burst, or arranged for dams and other artificial barriers to be built that would divert floodwaters away from their property and into the villages of the poor.
Only a few days ago, Fides reported on the sad case of the Christian village of Khokharabad where the diversion of floodwaters cost the lives of 15 people and left 377 homeless. Local aid groups say the flooding of this village was “guided” by Jamshed Dasti, a local politician and landowner from the nearby city of Muzaffargarh, who had dams and barriers built that diverted the water away from his own property.
Taj Masih, one of the leaders of the destroyed village, told Fides: “It is an inhumane act. Our village was flooded on purpose. Dasti, just to save his own land preferred to leave 377 people without home or harvest, our only source of livelihood. Now we have nothing.”
Dasti denied any responsibility in the incident and claims he was ordered to do so by the local Department of Agriculture. The Department also claimed they had nothing to do with it and the governor denies having ever given such orders.
Unfortunately, this was no isolated incident.
Since that time, Fides has spoken with displaced persons from four other Hindu and Christian villages who testified that they had received notice from the local civilian authorities to move into other areas just before floodwater came crashing into their villages, destroying everything in its path. Villagers claim the water came as a result of an artificial diversion, built to save the agricultural estates belonging to powerful landowners who convinced – and some say in a corrupt manner – local officials to divert the course of water and save their land. Incidents such as this, which occurred in at least four villages in the province of Sindh, have left at least 2,800 families homeless.
The head of one of the destroyed villages told Fides: “Once again the strength of the powerful crushes the poor. We Christians and Hindus in this area of Sindh are treated like animals; we do not receive any recognition from the government.”
Ambassador Haroon is now calling for an official government investigation into the matter.
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