LAHORE: As many as 10 policemen and two guards of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) were injured in a clash during an anti-encroachment operation in Nankana Sahib on Saturday.

DSP Shafaqat Rasheed told Dawn that some eight kanal land at Karmanwala had been illegally occupied by some people for the last many years. He said the ETPB had sought cooperation of the police to get the land vacated from the grabbers.

He said the district administration had served several notices on the grabbers to vacate the land.

On Saturday, a team comprising ETPB and policemen reached the spot for removing the encroachments.

ETPB chief alleges MPA backed assailants; admin claims to have no information about clean-up drive

The occupants gathered and started holding a protest in front of the ETPB office and later the protesters turned unruly, forcibly entered the premises and set the record ablaze.

The policemen and ETPB officials put up resistance at which the protesters armed with clubs and stones attacked the team and injured them.

Rescue 1122 and firefighter shifted the injured policemen and guards to hospital and extinguished the fire.

Meanwhile, ETPB Chairman Siddiqul Farooq held its own party MPA (Zulqernain Dogar) responsible for backing the landgrabbers and District Coordination Officer Dr Usman for doing nothing to control the situation whereas a senior Punjab government official termed Mr Farooq’s accusations baseless, saying the ETPB administration didn’t take the DCO, commissioner and others concerned on board prior to launching such a huge operation.

“I am of the opinion that the Nankana DCO acted cowardly as he didn’t take action to control the situation. I demand his transfer. And MPA Zulqernain Dogar must be taken to task for instigating the illegal occupants to attack the anti-encroachment team,” Mr Farooq told a press conference at his official residence in Zaman Park on Saturday.

On the other hand, a senior Punjab official said had Mr Farooq told about the operation to the DCO, commissioner, DPO or others, the incident could have been averted. “I think, they (the ETPB administration) had just informed the respective DSP or SHO alone. They neither informed the DCO, commissioner or the DPO (who already was on leave) nor any senior Punjab government official.” “Our operation was already planned. But when we started it, illegal occupants gathered there along with PML-N MPA Zulqernain Dogar and trader Riaz Chaudhry. Since they all were armed, they fired on us. Luckily I escaped bullets,” Mr Farooq said.

He said since he had already retrieved 450 kanal land from grabbers in Nankana some time back, the land mafia didn’t want to see him in ETPB.

Mr Farooq vowed to retrieve 19,000 acre land of the evacuee trust.

He said as soon as the situation turned nasty, he informed the home secretary and the IG from the spot.

He alleged that MPA Zulqernain Dogar was also behind the November 2015 incident in Nankana in which a group of local pilgrims led by Sardar Mastan Singh tried to disrupt religious proceedings at the Janimasthan of Baba Gurunanak.

He urged the Punjab government to help the ETPB in retrieving thousands of acres state land.

Since the Nankana DCO was unavailable for comments, Lahore Division Commissioner Abdullah Khan Sumbal said he had already directed him to submit a report to his office. “As far as I know no one among the senior officials knew about the operation.”

He said the ETPB administration had earlier been provided with full support last year in launching an operation against grabbers. And it proved successful as 400 kanals were retrieved.

The commissioner said he would soon submit his report to the Punjab government.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2016