August 25, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Saani 15,1423

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LAHORE, Aug 24: Four men and a woman were killed and 15 others wounded when the police and Rangers resorted to firing to disperse tenants of the Okara military farms on Saturday.

Tenants tilling the state land in Punjab since decades have been struggling for ownership rights for quite some time. There are 21 farms in the province under the military and agriculture department control.

Reports reaching here said that heavy contingents of the police and Rangers led by Brig S.M. Tiwana besieged villages Nos 13/4-L and 4/4-L housing tenants on Okara military farms.

The residents gathered there in large numbers and objected to the presence of the police and Rangers.

The law enforcement agencies fired teargas shells before resorting to shooting in which Mohammad Akram, Haji Ghafoor, Mohammad Akbar and two unidentified persons — one man and one woman — were killed. Another 15 people were wounded.

The injured, including Shehzad Masih, Tahir Hussain, Imtiaz Ahmad, Mohammad Jamil, Ghulam Murtaza, Nazir Ahmad and Ghulam Rasool, were admitted to the Okara DHQ Hospital.

The bodies were in the police custody till the filing of this report.

The police arrested Anjuman Mazareen chairman Anwar Javed Dogar when he and his wife reached Okara from Lahore. Raids were being conducted to arrest Nadeem Ashraf and other leaders of the Anjuman.

The Labour Party Pakistan and the Anjuman Mazareen Punjab have condemned the incident. The LPP has announced that it will hold a rally in Lahore on Aug 28 to protest the killings.

Rangers high-ups in Okara were reluctant to talk to reporters about the incident.

An official in the office of the IG Police denied any casualty in the incident. Only one person had sustained minor injuries, he said.

Meanwhile, Anjuman president Chaudhry Abdul Jabbar, condemning the “unprovoked” attack by the Rangers and police, said that residents of all villages of Okara and Renala military farms were being harassed.