LAHORE: Police on Friday registered a case against about 50 people for allegedly kidnapping employees of an expatriate and grabbing her land in Kahna.

Mehreen Chaudhry, the expat, was constructing a farmhouse on her nine acre land situated in the Kahna Nau area and two rooms and a wall had been constructed at the property.

As the construction work was taking place, about 50 armed men, including Muhammad Awais, Muhammad Haseeb, Muhammad Shoaib and Adil Sindhu, attacked the farmhouse late on Thursday night, Mehreen’s brother-in-law Sohaib Khursheed said in the first information report (FIR) he lodged with police.

He said the suspects held their servants, Momin Shah and Abidullah, hostage at gunpoint, damaged the construction and took away generators, sanitary equipment, floor tiles and furniture worth Rs2m.

The complainant said the suspects tortured his servants, kidnapped them and snatched their belongings and identity cards before releasing them at a deserted place.

He said the suspects were trying to grab his land and demanded registration of a case against them.

Kahna police registered a case under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

It was the second attempt by the suspects to grab the land and another case was already registered against them.

Former Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umer Sheikh had taken notice of the previous land grabbing incident and had got the piece of land vacated from the grabbers.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2021