ABBOTTABAD, Jan 16: A former president of the district bar association has accused police of forcibly occupying six shops of the Evacuee Property Trust allotted under a Supreme Court order.

Shamreez Khan Jadoon was speaking at a press conference at the local -press club here on Sunday. Mr Jadoon, owner of two of the shops, said that the six shops and a few houses of the trust were in their possession through a permanent transfer deed.

He said that the Peshawar High Court in a judgment in 1997 ordered the transfer of the property to the occupants against which the police filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. The apex court rejected the appeal in 1999, Mr Jadoon said.

He said that after the Supreme Court's order, possession of shops and houses was finally handed over to the present occupants by the Deputy Settlement Commissioner, the then Assistant Commissioner, in 2001. He said that on Jan 7, the police had forcibly locked all the shops.