Pakistan: Landlords burn peasants house after latter demanded share in crop

Karachi [Pakistan], June 15 : In Pakistan's Sindh province, the landlords' brutality reached another level as they set peasants' houses on fire when the latter demanded their due share from the wheat crop, reported The Express Tribune.

Following the incident, the Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC) wrote a letter to DIG police to ensure action against the culprits and provide justice to poor farmers.

According to The Express Tribune, the landlords namely Rasool Bux Gundaro and Sultan Ali with the help of their people set two houses of peasants on fire in Chak96 within Mangli Police jurisdiction.

The Express Tribune is a daily English-language newspaper based in Pakistan.

The peasants, Hout Shaikh and Naib Shaikh with their families were living on the agricultural land where the dispute occurred and it went viral on social media.

The Commission's Chairperson Iqbal Detho said that after harvesting, the landlords tried to take away all the wheat stock, but peasants argued to get the share which ensued into a dispute among them

Initially, police were reluctant to register a case against the landlords on the complaint of sharecroppers. However, Detho said, when the civil society members protested, the police registered the FIR without mentioning section 436, 427 PPC which deals with mischief by fire or explosives substance with intent to destroy houses, according to The Express Tribune.

SHRC has asked Shaheed Benazirabad DIG to include proper sections in the FIR and bring the culprits before the court of law.

According to Detho this inhuman practice of snatching share in the crop from peasants and their exploitation at the hands of a landed class must come to an end. "We are now trying to enforce the law and mobilise the concerned authorities for providing relief to the masses without discrimination," he said,

"We work round the clock only heave a sigh of relief when justice is meted out to the poor people," he said.

Land reform has become all the more necessary for nuclear-armed Pakistan which is facing a mounting economic crisis.

Tenants in Pakistan work the land for no pay because of debts owed to landlords, often incurred generations before. It's a classic system of share-cropping, where landless tenants hand over between two-thirds and half of their crop to landowners just to pay the interest.

Moreover, politicians and landowners often work hand in hand and block any move that disturbs the feudal structure from where they draw political and economic strength.