ISLAMABAD, April 15: A Circular Registrar of Cooperative Housing Society and policemen, including the former in-charge of Koral police station, were booked once again for their alleged involvement in a case of land grabbing.

The case was registered on the directive of the District and Sessions Court Islamabad issued last Saturday.

The accused had already been booked in a criminal case earlier on March 17 for their alleged involvement on the charges of forcefully grabbing land.

However, the complainant – Malik Ishrat – was not satisfied with the sections under which the case was booked.

Ishrat approached the courts a week ago with an application under section 22-A of CrPC to also book the accused under the charges of kidnapping, trespassing and occupying his land.

However, the police refused to accept his application and did not book the accused under these charges.

In the most recent registration of the case, done under the direction of the court, the police added the charge of PPC 511. However, a charge for attempt of murder (PPC 324) and Shajjah (PPC 337), that were already part of the first file against the accused were removed in this second FIR.

The complainant – Malik Ishrat – told Dawn that after hearing the arguments, the court had directed the police to register a case against the accused on charges of kidnapping, trespassing and land grabbing. However, he added, the police deliberately acted against the instructions of the court to weaken the case.

Ishrat further alleged that a senior officer is responsible for preventing the registration of the case with the right charges and creating obstacles in implementing the directions of the courts since the circular registrar and the policemen are also among the accused.

Ishrat's case is based on the events of March 17, when, he alleges, a group, including the registrar and policemen of Koral and the SHO, made an attempt to occupy lands measuring 800 kanal in Loi Bher.

He lodged a complaint with Koral police about the incident at around 10am and the matter was conveyed to the SHO and other officers but they failed to take any action on the matter.

He further alleged that the Koral police clearly told him that they have instructions from senior officers to not take any action in response to his complaint.

Later, the duty officer of the police station with some other police officers and the complainant reached the alleged land grabbing site and arrested two attackers.

During the arrest, two other attackers started firing at the police group and managed to injure two people.

In response to this incidence of firing, local villagers also reached the spot and rounded up nine attackers while 15 others managed to escape.

Later the villagers along with Ishrat blocked the Expressway in protest.

Four separate FIRs were lodged by the police in response to the instance of firing, including one against the registrar and the policemen.

Interestingly, one of the FIRs was also lodged against Malik Ishrat by the registrar – Mudasar Ali – that described that it was Ali who owned the land and it was his family property. About three years ago he transferred the land to the PWD Cooperative Housing Society.

Later, “a group of land grabbers operating under Malik Ishrat demanded an extortion amount of Rs100 million from Ali and on failure to deliver, threatened to occupy the land,” he explained in his statement.

Then on February 2, he added, ‘outlaws of Malik Ishrat’ raided the land. In response, he lodged the complaint. However, it was not entertained by the police.

On March 17 at around 8:20am Malik Ishrat’s outlaws raided the land and made Ali's employees hostage. However, he immediately informed the police who then rescued his employees.

In response, Malik Ishrat prepared another group of raiders and once again attempted to grab hold of the land at 3:30pm, successfully this time. However, once the police arrived at the scene, Ishrat and his group fled.

In response to Ali's complaint, a case was registered on charges of PPCs 148, 149, 337, 427, 342 and 365.

Two other cases were also registered over the issue in response to complaints lodged by policemen. One of the cases was registered over the arrest of three persons from the lands from whom rifles and pistols were recovered.

Yet another case was registered on charges of 148, 149, 341 and 342 over blockade of Expressway and making nine persons hostage.