FAISALABAD, Jan 1: Punjab PPP president Rana Aftab Ahmad says violence in the district “under the umbrella of protest against power outages is a conspiracy hatched by some unscrupulous elements only to frighten party leaders and workers.”

Addressing a press conference on Thursday at the residence of city general secretary and MPA Dr Asad Moazzam, he said some people had tried to play a “dirty political drama” by harassing and attacking the residences of the PPP leaders which was a condemnable act.

He said attacks on party leaders were a form of terrorism and the president secretariat and the Punjab governor had been informed about the lawlessness.

He said since the PPP was a part of the coalition government in the Punjab, it wanted the provincial government to give due respect to its workers.

He claimed the district administration had deliberately

let furious people assemble to protest against loadshedding.

Rana Aftab said Madina Town SHO Rana Atif had forced his entry into the residence of Dr Moazzam and manhandled inmates. He said Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and regional police officer Abdul Majeed had been approached for the registration of a case against the officer.

MPA Dr Moazzam said some two dozen unidentified people had pelted his residence with stones and forced their entry. They held hostage his employees and subjected his younger brother Shehzad Moazzam to severe torture, forcing house members to lock themselves in a room.

He said when two of the trouble-makers were taken into custody, one of them introduced himself as brother-in-law of Rana Atif and revealed that they had been tasked to hit his family by damaging the house.

He claimed that Rana Atif had taken away the two troublemakers with him, though his house did not fall in his jurisdiction.