LAHORE/Kasur: A group of farming community on Monday tried to enter the provincial metropolis to protest against withdrawal of subsidies but police foiled their attempt by closing their route by placing containers on the road.

Members of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad riding dozens of buses and cars coming all the way from Bahawalnagar, Multan, Sahiwal and Okara first encountered police “siege” at Manga Mandi, around 35km from here on Multan Road.

They, however, managed to break the police cordon by diverting from the main road and driving through EME Society reached Thokar Niaz Beg only to encounter another police picket.

Led by Chaudhry Anwer, the farmers armed with batons were demanding restoration of subsidies for various crops, opposing the court order of reversing shifting of sugar mills of the Sharifs from Rahim Yar Khan back to Pakpattan, Nankana Sahib and Gojra.

Roads blocked to stop PKI activists from entering city

They vowed to lay a siege to the Punjab Assembly building until fulfillment of their demands.

Mian Umair, general secretary of the rival group of the Kissan Ittehad, alleged that the protesters enjoyed the support of the Punjab government and that the hurdles in their way were just to hoodwink the people.

He claimed that some officials of the provincial government had approached their group too for taking out the rally and promised to facilitate them by offering transport and other services but they declined the offer.

Khalid Khokhar, PKI president, claimed that the Lahore Metropolitan Corporation has been tasked with taking care of food needs of the protesters.

He regretted that whenever the farmers came out of their homes for their ‘genuine’ demands they were treated harshly as police used batons and even tear gas to prevent them from assembling in Lahore or Islamabad. But for their own interests the rulers were facilitating the protesters, he alleged.In Kasur, farmers blocked Multan Road near Halla Chowk and Jamber Chowk and threw traffic out of gear for hours.

Earlier, more than 10 personnel near Kalalawala Khoh in the limits of Manga Mandi police station did not dare stop the rally, comprising about 1,000 farmers.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2017