They live by a shrine to a saint. Why are their homes being demolished?
Local authorities in Islamabad, Pakistan, have demolished hundreds of homes and shops surrounding the historic Bari Imam shrine. The mass displacement has left thousands of residents, including families and laborers, without housing or stable income.
Why it matters
The incident highlights severe housing rights issues and the impact of urban development projects on vulnerable, long-term communities.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –- For more than 300 years , people have settled around the soaring marble shrine of the Sufi saint known as Bari Imam, nestled at the foothills of the Himalayas. Some served the hundreds of pilgrims who visit each day, others to seek the saint's blessings. They include the ancestors of 30-year-old Wirasat Aly, who for generations lit evening lamps to honor the saint whose shrine now abuts upscale areas of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.
But on a recent day, Aly was salvaging bricks from his razed home, tossing the good ones in a pile to sell to construction companies. A truckful is worth the equivalent of $5.40, and it's how he's scraping together $70 monthly rent to shelter his family, including 8 children in his care.
They include the nieces and nephews of his disabled brother.
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