HYDERABAD, Sept 30: A number of people from Bheel Colony in Mithi held a demonstration outside the press club here on Sunday in protest against demolition of 70 houses and five temples in their area of residence.
They raised slogans against MNA Mahish Kumar Malani, accusing him of getting their religious places and houses demolished on Sept 18 by employing government machinery.
Leading the protest, Mannu Bheel and Bhagat Kachhro Bheel said they had been living in Bheel Colony for 30 years. They said they also held a protest outside the local press club on Sept 24 and claimed that since then they had been receiving threats from the lawmaker and his men.
They urged the government to ensure protection to them and called for justice.
According to PPI, hundreds of members of the Bheel community from across the province gathered in the ground of a high school in Mithi, the headquarter town of desert district Tharparkar, on Sunday.
They were demanding their right to vote and security.
The gathering was part of the first-ever awareness conference that turned into a huge public meeting. Radha Bheel, Ponju Kherani, Mahesh Bheel, Soram Chand Bheel, Chanderam, Shiv Puri, Rano Bheel, Chetan Bheel, Hakim Sonani, Ramoo, Mewa Ram, Aasan, Santosh, Bhuro, Pirbhu Lal, Prof Badal and many others spoke at the public meeting, organised by the Bheel Intellectual Forum (BIF).
The speakers deplored that currently Khatumal, Mahesh Kumar Malani, Darshan Lal and some others represented minorities in the Sindh Assembly but they never raised a single word for their rights on the floor of the house.
The conference demanded an end to forced conversion of Hindu girls, kidnapping for ransom of Hindus, increased job quota for Hindus, opening of closed schools for the Bheel community and recruitment of local people in the Thar coal projects.
http://dawn.com/2012/10/01/bheels-protest-demolition-of-temples-70-houses/
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