November 11, 2001	Sunday	Shaba’an 24, 1422

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MULTAN, Nov 10: The law and order problem at a Dera Ghazi Khan village and its amicable resolution on Friday establishes that elected people can better handle mobs as compared to bureaucracy.

The elected resolved the crisis at their own by using their influence in the area. Keeping in view the anger and mood of the protesters after the three deaths on Friday, the peaceful end of the law and order problem was a near miracle.

Dera Ghazi Khan district is a stronghold of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, first led by late Maulana Mufti Mehmood and now-a-days by his son Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Mufti Mehmood returned to the National Assembly from this district on PNA (Paksitan National Alliance) ticket in 1977. In the following general elections, the aspirants had to seek the JUI support to strengthen their position, especially those contesting from NA-132, due to a large network of JUI-patronised seminaries set up in villages along the Indus Highway from Dera Ismail Khan, hometown of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, down to Dera Ghazi Khan city.

There are some half a dozen main seminaries in Shahdan Lond, a village of some 12,000 souls and headquarters of the Balochi Lond tribal chiefs, while the small ones in the nearby localities are countless. As the JUI is the main supporter of the Taliban regime, the resentment among the students of JUI-run seminaries, therefore, is natural.

But the security measures in the area ahead of the Friday wheel jam were not up to the mark.

According to information gathered by this correspondent, Taunsa police arrested a number of religious leaders during a midnight crackdown on Thursday. Later on, a lorry carrying prisoners arrived Taunsa to shift the arrested — Abdul Haq, Abdul Raheem Kutbi, Qari Yar Muhammad and Maulana Abdul Aleem — to Dera.

Some other leaders informed the seminaries in Shahdan Lond that the arrested leaders were to be shifted and were likely to pass by the village through the Indus Highway. The seminary students were preparing to say Fajr prayers. They came on road and placed hurdles on the highway. After a short while, the lorry reached there.

The protesters overpowered four escorts, got the arrested released before torching the vehicle.

Later on, the protesters placed boulders on the nearby railway track and stopped 21-up Chiltan Express. A small number of police officials were combating the violent protesters. When the situation worsened, they opened fire, resulting in two causalities on the spot, one on way to hospital and fourth at the DHQ hospital of Dera on Saturday evening.

It is difficult to comprehend why police reinforcement came late. District police officer Ibne-Husain reached the troubled spot after 11 am. Before him, the only senior police official at the spot was SP (traffic) Akhtar Umer Hayat Laleka who, too, reached there at 10 am.

The district coordination officer, Saquib Aleem, expressed his ignorance about the Shahdan Lond incident whenever contacted by journalists.

However, the elected team of the government remained active since early Friday morning. First, union council Nazim Javed Lond tried to pacify the protesters. Later, Zila Nazim Jamal Leghari rushed to the troubled spot along with tehsil Nazim Asim Zubair Khosa and negotiated with the protest leaders in a mosque for several hours and convinced them that justice would be done but first the blockade should be lifted.

At about 9.45 pm on Friday, the protesters dispersed peacefully.