Residents of Orangi Town held a demonstration on Monday outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) against the town administration for demolishing around 500 houses in an old village called Hawa Goth.

Protestors, including old women and children, carried banners inscribed with slogans against the town administration and the local police. They urged authorities concerned to provide them with justice.

“My husband Rasool Bux and my son-in-law, Maskan, were killed when our house was destroyed,” an old woman, Mehnaz, told The News. “I need justice.” Mehnaz is a mother of six. She said her son-in-law had left behind three children.

Another old woman, Hawa, said they had been living there for the past 45 years. She claimed that the town administration had demanded Rs5 million from them in return for not destroying their houses. One protester, Akbar, claimed that their village was also included in the first plan of the city, which dates back to 1915.

“I constructed the house with my hard-earned money but the town administration destroyed it,” an outraged Baloch woman said. In 1993, Akbar said, the then-deputy commissioner Karachi West had given them lease for the village which is spread over 60 acres. He claimed that the slain Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, had also visited their village.

Residents of Hawa Goth have been demanding justice for the past five months, Akbar said. Participants at Monday’s demonstration threatened to stage a hunger strike outside the KPC if their demands were not fulfilled soon.