April 14, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1429

OKARA, April 13: Tenants of seven Kulana Estate villages also took out a rally in favour of the Anjuman-i-Mozareen Punjab group led by its secretary-general Mehr Abdul Sattar on Sunday.

The situation turned drastic when protesters ‘occupied’ a 25-acre tract of a retired subedar, Barkat, and the Satgarah police had to swing into action.

Reports said that Kulana Estate tenants’ leader Malik Saleem Jakkhar along with dozens of tenants took possession of Barkat’s land and started ploughing it.

They claimed that their forefathers had tilled these lands and that they would not allow any army man to occupy these. On being informed, a Satgrah police contingent, led by SHO Mirza Alamgir, rushed to the Kulana Estate in four vehicles and held talks with tenants.

Saleem Jakkhar told the SHO that they would block roads if the practice of allotting the lands tilled by their forefathers to army personnel was not discontinued.

Sadar Circle DSP Attique Butt said the police were in talks with tenants to take back the possession of the land of Barkat. He made it clear that nobody would be allowed to take law into its hands.

Meanwhile, the military farm villages remained in the grip of tension after both rival groups of AMP took out rallies against each other.

The pro-Mehr Abdul Sattar group staged rallies in 18 villages and demanded the withdrawal of a fabricated murder case against its leaders.

A press release issued by the Mehr Abdul Sattar group stated that tenants of military farm villages and Kulana Estate villages would take out protest rallies on Monday.

It said the rallies would be taken out from the DPO office to Okara Press Club Chowk to press for the demand of withdrawing the murder case against their leaders.

On the other hand, the AMP group, led by Younis Iqbal Masih, also staged a rally in village 10/4-L demanding the arrest of the accused nominated in the murder case.

In its press release, the Younis Masih group also announced holding a protest rally on Monday.