OKARA, July 24: A local court on Saturday sent 11 tenants, including a woman, to Sahiwal Central Jail on judicial remand.

Okara police presented 11 nominated accused in the court of magistrate Syed Muhammad Omar in a case registered against them under 16-MPO on the direction of the Punjab Home Department.

Those sent to jail on judicial remand were: Jafar Hussain, Muhammad Iqbal, Abdul Waheed, Ashfaq Ahmed, Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Arif, Muhammad Bashir, Zulfiqar Ali, Tariq Ali, Saifullah and Arshad Bibi.

While three tenants' leaders - Muhammad Altaf, Gulzar and Ghulam Rasool have also been detained in a Sahiwal jail for three months under 3-MPO on the orders of Punjab Home department secretary.

However, two women tenants - Zohran Bibi and Anwar Bibi - were released after talks between tenants and the administration.

Meanwhile, the Anjuman Mazareen Punjab held a meeting on Saturday in Chak 4/4-L. The meeting decided that a protest demonstration would be held in front of the Lahore Press Club on Sunday (today) against the arrest of tenants' representatives.

AMP spokesman Noor Bibi said that we were ready to hold dialogues to ease the situation, but we would never allow any government institution to water 82 acres of agriculture land.

Meanwhile, AMP secretary-general Mehr Abdul Sattar said that Okara Cantonment police had arrested three tenants' leaders - Altaf Hussain, Master Ghulam Rasool and Gulzar in a false water theft case on July 17 on the premises of sessions court.

He said the tenants had decided to hold a protest against the arrest of their leaders on false charges on July 22. It had also been decided that tenants would not allow the military farms administration to water the fields of 82 acres at Chak 15/44 as per an agreement reached between the tenants and army some two weeks ago.

He alleged the army had violated the agreement when they illegally picked up their leaders. He said the police had booked over 100 tenants and arrested 16 of them on false charges when their leaders came out of the court after getting their bails confirmed on Friday.