MULTAN, May 10: Tenants of the Okara military farms have vowed that they will continue their struggle under their slogan ‘ownership rights or death’ despite all coercive tactics of police and Rangers authorities.

In a press statement here on Saturday, Anjuman Mazareen Punjab’s acting president Liaquat Ali and secretary-general Shagufta Zafar dispelled the impression what they said created by a section of press that the tenants had withdrawn from their demand of ownership rights against their tenancy lands.

They alleged that such fabricated stories were being circulated at the behest of military farm authorities. No-one among the tenants could betray the sacrifices of their half-a-dozen colleagues who lost their lives for the cause, they said. The movement could not be stopped until the withdrawal of fabricated cases instituted against the tenants and release of the innocent people imprisoned to stop them from demanding their rights.

They said peace could not be returned to the military farms until the withdrawal of the Rangers from Okara.

The AMP leadership urged the Punjab chief minister to take note of the atrocities against the tenants. They alleged that the ‘law-enforcers’ were not sparing even women and children at the pickets set up to cordon off the military farm villages.

They claimed that Abid of class seven, Shoaib of class five and Arshad of class three of Chak 4/4-L had been whisked away by the authorities besides taking into custody Dr Muneer, Nawasher Tufail, Ramzan, Riaz Masih, Yasin, Ashraf, Ishfaq and Tariq Dogar during the last 24 hours.

In a separate statement, AMP’s Okara zone secretary-general David Zahid announced that the tenants would stage rallies in all villages on Sunday to condemn the excesses of law-enforcers. He also announced that they would stage protest demonstrations throughout the province on May 15.

He urged the chief minister to bring an end to the highhandedness of police and the Rangers in Okara.

Meanwhile, the police arrested Sarwar Mujahid, a correspondent of an Urdu daily, on Saturday. He was accused in a number of cases the Okara police had registered recently against some 93 tenants.