Usta Mohammad

Coordinates: 28°10′20″N 68°2′38″E / 28.17222°N 68.04389°E / 28.17222; 68.04389 Usta Mohammad is a city and sub-division of the District Jaffarabad of Balochistan Province, Pakistan. The subdivision has an area of 978 km² and had an estimated population 160,230 in 2008. The city has an area of 3.3 km² and an estimated population of 35,000. Usta Mohammad has Railwaystation railways boundary connected Usta to Larkana (sindh) Usta Mohammad is 2nd biggest Business city of Balochistan. Usta is 2nd most poulated city in Balochistan province Tea is very famous cafe among sttlers.

People

More than 99% of the people of the district are Muslims. Major Baloch tribes in the district include, Palal (Bulledi), Bangulzai, Rind, Soomro, Lashari, Mahesar, Abro, Lehri, Mastoi Baloch, Dayo, Abro, Nausherwani, Bohar, Siyal, umrani, Bhangar, Jamali, Khoso, Nichari, Qaisrani, Jessrani, Chawla, Wadhwani, Kamora, Kalra, Sachdev, Thawarzai, Gurnezai, Rajani, (Hindus Costs)Mengal, Marri, denari rind, Shaikh, GOLA Baloch and Daya. (Syed-Jeelani)(pandrani)Chandio '

Languages:

Balochi/Sindhi/Brahui/Siraiki

The sub-division center is the city of Usta Muhammad. Unions in the district are Ali Abad, Faiz Abad,Khan Pur,Bari shakh, Mehrab Pur, Piral Abad, Qabula, Samaji, Sobarani-II, Usta Muhammad I, Usta Muhammad II, Usta Muhammad III.^[1]

Climate and economy

Usta Mohammad is in the Kachhi plain basin, with an average altitude of about 55 meters. Annual rainfall is only about 90mm, of which 60mm falls in Winter (November–May).^[2] Winters are cold, and summers are dry and extremely hot. The people of the district are poor, with inadequate access to medical supplies and facilities.^[3]

The area is sometimes subject to flooding, as happened in June 2007 after Cyclone Yemyin. The Kachhi Canal Project, started in 2002, is expected to have a significant impact in conserving floodwater and controlling water flows.^[4]

Crops include rice, wheat and sorghum. A survey in 2002 determine that the incidence of Sporisorium sorghi, the causal organism of grain smut of sorghum, reached 7% in Usta Mohammad.^[5] A recent survey of rice farmers in the district found that 33% were illiterate, 55% farmed from 12-40 acres of land, and 58.3% were tenant farmers.^[6] Some farms raise cattle, sheep and goats.^[7]

The city has an Agri-Development Institute^[8] and a Government Degree College.

Baba Kot incident

The city gained unwelcome attention when, on 13 July 2008, five women from the village of Baba Kot about 80 km away were kidnapped by armed men who objected to three of them wanting to marry men of their choice in defiance of the Umrani tribal elders. The women were about to leave Baba Kot Umrani for a civil court at Usta Mohammad. They were forced into a jeep, driven to a remote area, beaten and buried alive, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission.^[9][10]

Prime suspect in Dr Soomro assassination case arrested

Sukkur police claimed to have arrested the prime suspect in the 29 November 2014 assassination of the then Sindh secretary general of the Jamiat Ulema-i-IslamFazl Dr Khalid Mahmood Soomro. Sukkur SSP Tanveer Hussain Tunio disclosed the arrest of the suspect, Lutufullah Jamali, in his messages to some journalists and later speaking to the media in his office on Tuesday. The SSP said that acting upon a tip-off, 11 vehicles carrying a big police force crossed into Balochistan to conduct a raid on a hideout in Usta Mohammed. Jamali was found present there and the police arrested him, he said, without giving other details about the raid. He said that five suspects involved in the assassination had already been arrested. Dr Soomro was gunned^[11] down while he was saying Fajr prayers in a mosque next to his seminary in the SITE area of Sukkur on 29 November 2014. While the killer(s) remained at large for weeks after the attack, the JUI-F held a series of rallies and demonstrations in Sindh and other parts of the country for their arrest.

References