January 04, 2008	Friday	Zilhaj 24, 1428

GUJRAT, Jan 3: Police on Wednesday registered a case against 80 PPP activists, including former MNA Mian Mushtaq Husain Pagganwala, his son and party’s secretary-general Mian Fakhar Pagganwala, city president Zahid Salimi, for their alleged involvement in ransacking a petrol pump owed by a PML leader on GT Road.

A-division police lodged an FIR against 80 PPP activists under the anti-terrorism act (ATA) for damaging a filling station of PML leader Hamza Tariq on the report of Sajid Husain, the manager of the petrol pump. However, the FIR has been sealed.

Sources said of 80 workers, 10 had been nominated in the case. They said Mian Mushtaq Pagganwala, Mian Fakhar Pagganwala, Zahid Salimi, Abdur Razzaq Salimi, Imran Malik, Zafar Bhatti, Mir Anjum, Shoaib Asghar Butt and some other had been nominated in the FIR whereas around 70 activists were unidentified. However, the police did not conduct any raid for arrests.

Meanwhile, former federal minister and PPP leader Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar in a statement here termed the case baseless. He accused the Gujrat DPO of sabotaging the peaceful atmosphere of the district by following the directions of PML-Q leadership.

He said his party workers would not file bail pleas and warned that if any of his party men was arrested, PPP would go for a shutdown strike.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the district government had sent a report on losses during riots to the Punjab chief secretary. The report said Rs3.1 million loss was inflicted on petrol pumps and about Rs0.6 million on three furniture showrooms situated on GT Road.

CONDOLENCE: PML-Q district president Wajahat Husain, NA speaker Ameer Husain, district nazim Shafaat Husain and others have visited Kaira House, Lalamusa, to condole the death of Tauqeer Akram Kaira, who was killed in the Liaquat Bagh tragedy.