The Christian and Hindu families who had to leave Lyari’s Slaughter House area a few months ago fearing for their lives have demanded that the government should provide them with a temporary abode outside the troubled neighbourhood as they were scared of returning home.In meeting with DIG South Abdul Khaliq Shaikh on Friday, the leaders of the communities said they “ready to live on the streets rather than going back to Lyari”.
“The DIG assured us that the police will provide full security in Slaughter House, but the families are not ready because criminal gangs are operating there with immunity,” said Peter Bernard, a Christian leader told The News.
“We have offered that the government should meet the families and talk directly with them,” said Mohan Lal Maheshwari, who represents the Hindus.Around 550 Christian and Hindu families had left Slaughter House in October after the area’s gangsters killed three Christian men.The leaders say that they understand that the police will provide them with security, but the problem is that the gangs rule the whole of Lyari.
“The police can provide security in and around the compound. But the men go to work and the children go to schools. They [the gangs] can hit them anywhere and anytime they want.” The displaced families are living in the homes of their relatives in various Christian- and Hindu-majority areas in the city.
Many families are too poor to rent a house. It has already been over three months and they are living in their friends and relatives’ houses.
“The government should come forward with a solution, or else the families will be forced to live on the streets in the cold. They are too frightened to return. It’s always wise to choose life over unspeakable hardships,” said Bernard.
