GUJRAT: Saddar Sara-i-Alamgir police on Saturday registered two cases against about 200 protesters for attacking and damaging property worth Rs1.5bn and taking away Rs50m from a housing scheme last Sunday.

One case has been lodged on the report of scheme admin manager retired Maj Sohail Ashraf and the second case has been registered on the report of Asad Zahoor, the owner of a real estate company based in the scheme. The cases have been registered under the sections of PPC; however, no arrest has been made so far.

Earlier, a murder case after the death of a protester and injuries to six others during firing by the New Metro City Housing Scheme guards was registered against housing scheme employees. Three employees were arrested and four others had got protective bail from court.

On the other hand, an official report of the land revenue department has also established the housing scheme employees had entered the piece of land in Choa Kariala village along with machinery despite the fact that the scheme did not own the land.

On Oct 3, the residents of Choa Kariala and surrounding villages first resisted the scheme employees who were allegedly trying to grab their land. Then they started holding a protest against the alleged land grabbing when the scheme guards opened indiscriminate fire on them, killing a protester, Raja Sarwar, and injuring six others.

After this, the protesters stormed into the housing scheme and allegedly set its property on fire. They kept the GT Road blocked by placing the body of the deceased on it.

Police had booked 10 nominated and 40 unidentified suspects belonging to the management of the housing scheme on the report of a close kin to the deceased.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2021