Following a confrontation with authorities, purportedly from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), regarding the removal of trees from the Jail Chowrangi neighborhood of the city, a 79-year-old environmentalist was hurt on Thursday.
For ten years, Abdul Hameed Dagia has been involved in environmental concerns, telling Dawn.com that he was “attacked” because he would not cease the video recording of “illegal chopping down of trees.”
He had “several injuries,” according to his relatives, who informed Dawn.com that he was taken to the Aga Khan University Hospital, treated there, and then released.
He was sent to a different hospital with complaints of vertigo at 11:32 a.m., two hours after the “alleged assault,” according to his later referral, a copy of which can be found on Dawn.com.
The letter stated that he was in “unremarkable” condition save from an injury on his left wrist. It stated that the patient was being admitted to a different hospital with medical-legal services.
A copy of the complaint that Dagia’s son filed with the Ferozabad police is accessible on Dawn.com. A “tree-cutter mafia was cutting trees” when Dagia arrived at Jail Chowrangi, according to the report. According to the report, the group pretended to be from KMC as he started filming them and started to “threaten” the environmentalist.
“He persisted in filming despite the threats, and as a result, he was attacked, beaten, and cursed.”
It stated that after receiving a tip, the Ferozabad police detained a group member who persisted in identifying himself as a member of the KMC.
However, Dagia’s use of foul language is said to have started the altercation, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab told Dawn.com.
When Dawn.com questioned him over the reported altercation, he replied, “I checked with [KMC] Parks Department.” They told me they were working on replacing the Conocarpus trees on Shaheed-i-Millat Road with native trees from the area.
“Dagia sahib arrived and attempted to halt them. They claim that Dagia sahib was the one who started using derogatory words. When he witnessed the replacement work, Town Municipal Corporation Chairman Jinnah, who had also initially visited the site to stop the work, decided to plant a tree himself.
The city mayor had earlier in the day announced that KMC authorities were swapping out the Conocarpus trees along Shaheed-i-Millat Road for native species.
