Christian slums face demolition in Islamabad

Community leader threatens mass protests.

Islamabad:  A planned demolition of 12 Christian and Muslim slums in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad has been met with threats of large-scale protest.

Former MP Julious Salik, a prominent Christian community leader and chairman of rights group World Minority Alliance (WMA), said that he and thousands of Christians and Muslims would strongly oppose the plans of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to demolish what it claims are illegal slums where Christians make up the majority of residents.

“We would not let the civic body crack down on 2,000 Christian families who have been living in mud and brick made houses for a long time,” he told ucanews.com.

Salik said he would soon launch a jail bharo - or fill jails - when thousands of protestors would present themselves to the police in order to be arrested.

Pakistan’s Interior Ministry recently declared that the illegal settlements were posing a serious threat to the capital’s security, and claimed that many Afghan refugees and terror suspects were living there.

Last month, the Islamabad high court directed the CDA to finish the process of slum demolition within one month and submit a report on March 12.

“We are committed to demolishing all illegal settlements in the capital on court orders,” said Muhammad Zafar, Director of Regional Planning at CDA.

Salik said however that “the government neither allocated any piece of land for the relocation of displaced dwellers nor announced any compensation for them."

He added: “We will go to jail but not become IDPs in our own city.”

Source: ucanews.com