FAISALABAD: The police on Friday refused to make State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali and PML-N MPA Tahir Jamil part of the investigation of a case registered after the killing of a PTI worker on Monday last.

The minister and the MPA, along with their supporters, went to the Samanabad police station on Friday to join the investigation but the SHO informed them that they could not be made part of the case till formation of the Joint Investigation Team.

A case under section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, 302, 148, 149 and 109 of the PPC was registered with the Samanabad police on Monday last when PTI worker Haq Nawaz was gunned down during protest. Abid Sher Ali, Jamil, former law minister Rana Sanaullah, DCO Noorul Ameen Mengal and more than 300 people were booked.

Atta, brother of Haq Nawaz, alleged in the FIR that Abid Sher Ali, Tahir Jamil, the DCO and others gathered at the outhouse of Rana Sana where they tasked the PML-N workers with attacking the PTI activists on the assurance that no action would be taken against them.

Abid Sher Ali told reporters at the police station that he had nothing to do with the clashes that took place on Monday last and the killing was just an accident.

CONDOLENCE: Former opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz visited the residence of Haq Nawaz and condoled with the family. He told the media that the PPP was generally against the policies of Nawaz Sharif but in the present circumstances it’s trying to protect the Constitution.

He said a peaceful protest was being held in Faisalabad on Dec 8 but the PML-N brought its workers on roads to bully the PTI workers that triggered clashes leading to the death of Nawaz.

He said the demand for the prime minister’s resignation was unconstitutional.

UAF students protest: Students of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) on Friday took to the street to register their protest against ‘inquiries’ being conducted against them.

Holding banners and placards, the university students turned up on Jail Road and threw traffic out of gear for more than one hour. They chanted slogans against the administration for intimidating the students by launching inquiries against them for questioning the university’s decisions.

On Oct 16 last, a number of students staged a protest demonstration on Jail Road against the administration for raising fees, evicted hundreds of students from hostels and a lack of transportation.

Some of them told reporters on Friday that the university administration initiated a probe by issuing charge-sheets to the students and evicted hundreds of them from hostels to accommodate the newly-admitted girl students.

The students with the intervention of the DCO held talks with the varsity management which promised to accommodate them in the hostel. Instead of honouring the promise, they said, the university issued charge-sheet to the students who were leading the protest and initiated a probe against them.

The officials later assured them that at all inquiries would be dropped but nothing had been done so far, they added.

Published in Dawn December 13th , 2014