September 4, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Saani25,1423

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MULTAN, Sept 3: There is mounting tension again on the Okara military farms after a contingent of rangers and police entered a tenants’ village late on Tuesday night.

Reporters arriving here disclosed that a contingent of more than 100 para-military personnel — rangers and Punjab police — tried to forcibly get the tenants at Chak 8/4L to sign one-year lease deeds.

These people have been cultivating their tenancy lands for nearly a century and are demanding ownership rights.

The watchful tenants, on seeing the ‘law enforcers’, raised an alarm, and subsequently, a large number of men, women and children from Chaks 8/4L and 10/4L acted promptly and formed a human wall to stop the force from advancing. According to reports, the raiding party, before retreating to the Chaks 8/4L and 10/4L intersection, arrested a number of tenants who refused to sign the lease deed.

The stand-off between the tenants and the paramilitary force continued at the time of filing this report; the rangers had already sought reinforcement.

Earlier, on August 24, rangers and police raided Chak 13/4L and began firing at the tenants when they resisted their bid to take control of their lands. As a result, Suleman Masih was killed and six others are reportedly missing since the operation.

Anjuman Mazareen Punjab fears that the missing might have been killed.