August 11, 2008	Monday	Sha’aban 8, 1429

FAISALABAD, Aug 10: Six people sustained injuries in a clash between powerloom workers and their employers here on Sunday in Lakkar Mandi.

Reports said labourers staged a protest rally and blocked Jhang Road, demanding raise in their wages. They also chanted slogans against the government and factory owners for depriving them of their genuine rights.

Some of the protesters got infuriated and clubbed factory owner Talha Sheikh and two of his friends Azeem and Shafiq when they resorted to aerial firing to disperse the labourers.

The workers also pelted different factories with stones and also allegedly set alight a factory owned by Shafiq Ahmed. However, workers rejected the allegation and said factory owners staged the fire incident only to implicate labourers in false cases.

Three labourers -- Khursheed, Naseer and Mairaj -- also sustained injuries when factory owners clubbed the protesters.

The injured were removed to the Allied hospital where their condition was stated to be stable.

A heavy police contingent was present during the protest demonstration.

Mr Talha told the Jhang Bazaar police that they resorted to aerial firing when some protesters were trying to enter his factory.

Jhang Bazaar SHO Rana Asif said both sides had filed applications for registration of the case.

“We are looking into the matter for filing of the case.”

However, the police had arrested three labourers.

It’s the second clash between factory owners and powerlooms workers over the issue of wages. The first incident took place on June 24 in Sadhar industrial area, which left a labourer, Ajmal, dead and injured nearly a dozen others.

PML-Q MPA Ajmal Asif and a few of his accomplices were nominated in the FIR on charges of killing the worker, however, no arrest had been made yet.

ACCIDENTS: Four people, including a man and his mother, were killed in two accidents on Sunday.

Reports said Shehzad Akbar and his mother Ishrat Bibi, 50, were on way from Lahore to Faisalabad when he lost control over his speeding car while overtaking another vehicle near Kashmir bridge. Resultantly the car fell into the canal.

Rescue 1122 recovered them and shifted them to hospital where they breathed their last as doctors were not available owing to Sunday.

No body was available at the hospital to tell this reporter whether the victims were given proper medical treatment or not.

The second accident took place at Chak 32-JB where a trolley driver and his helper were killed when their vehicle overturned.

Abdul Rasheed and Rana Zafar Ali were heading towards Faisalabad with a trolley laden with fodder when it overturned, killing them on the spot.