April 15, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1429

OKARA, April 14: Tension is still gripping Chak 10/4-L after the murder of a Christian tenant, Javed, a couple of days ago and both factions of the Anjuman-i-Mozareen Pakistan (AMP) are locking horns by designing protest rallies and launching protests.

The police have intervened on Monday to defuse the tension, first by participating in a gathering arranged by the victim’s companions in a bid to pacify them and then by urging all the accused of rival group to join the investigation after securing their pre-arrest bail.

Younis Iqbal Masih, who is head of his own faction of the AMP, is accusing the AMP faction led by its general-secretary Mehr Abdul Sattar of Javed’s murder and has lodged a case against 19 people of the rival faction.

Younis-led faction is protesting to arrest the accused while Sattar-led faction is protesting to evade arrests, claiming that its members had been implicated in a false case and that they were indeed innocents.

After police intervention, both the groups cancelled their Monday’s protest rallies from DPO Office to Okara Press Club.

However, Younis-led faction of the AMP held a gathering in the village, which was addressed by Younis himself, Ghani Javed, David Zahid, Pappu, Asghar Ali and Waseem Abbas. They demanded the arrest of all murder suspects named in the FIR.

Okara City DSP Malik Muhammad Hussain, Investigation DSP Muhammad Saleem Warriach, Cantonment SHO Hasan Askari and Sadar SHO Khalid Pervez participated in the gathering and assured the participants that the accused named in the FIR would be arrested.

On the other hand, Sattar said that they had postponed their protest rally conditionally and if their rival group (Younis-led faction of the AMP) would take out their rally, they would take out their rally too.

He said that they had decided joining the investigation after getting pre-arrest bail in order to resolve the murder.

KULANA ESTATE: The Kulana estate tenants led by Malik Saleem Jhakkar are still maintaining the possession they took over the agricultural lands allotted to retired Subedar Barkat measuring one square (25 acres) in village 28/2-R by Monday evening.

However, the tenants have agreed to have a dialogue with DCO Tariq Javed Afridi and officials of the revenue department on Wednesday.

On Sunday, the Kulana estate tenants led by Jhakkar had announced that these lands belonged to them and they would never forego their right to possess these lands.

However, on the intervention of Sadar DSP Attiq Butt, the tenants have agreed to indulge in a dialogue with the DCO and other revenue officials tomorrow.

Barkat is, however, claiming that the tenants had taken the possession of his lands unlawfully and the police were not cooperating with him to evict the trespassers. The police are, however, struggling to maintain security situation after the incident.

FAINTED: As many as eight people of a Christian family fainted after consuming apparently poisonous tea in Faisal Mehmood Colony here on Sunday night.

Albert Masih and seven of his family members, including Victoria, Abdia, Fouzia, Imsha, Sultan, Sajid and Shahnaz, took tea during a power outage but this deteriorated their condition and soon they fell unconscious.

They were taken to DHQ Hospital where Abida, 25, and Fauzia, 16, are stated to be in critical condition.