KARACHI, June 15: Speakers at a rally on Sunday demanded that siege of Okara villages be lifted and the atrocities by the law enforcement agency personnel against the farmer be stopped.

They were speaking at the rally organized by the Labour Party of Pakistan at the Karachi Press Club to express solidarity with the Okara farmers and condemn the LEA personnel for subjecting them to atrocities.

They recalled that British rulers had settled these farmer on the lands in Okara and Renala Khurd more than a century back when these lands were barren.

They said three or four generations of these peasant families had been working on the lands and their hard work turned these lands into best agricultural lands in the country. Vested interests, they regretted, were bent upon denying these farmers their due rights and resorting to inflict loss of life on the protesting peasants.

The speakers referred to seven protesters’ deaths already occurred in the dispute and demanded registration of cases against the killers. They called for an open trial and exemplary punishment to the guilty.

They further demanded that siege of the Okara villages be lifted and villagers allowed to move freely.

They criticized various political parties for not adopting a clear stand on the issue while atrocities by the LEAs continued unabated.

The demonstrators were holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans in favour of their demands.

Those spoke on the occasion included Umer Baloch and Ghulam Akber.