ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The district and sessions judge, Sheikh Ahmed Farooq, on Monday rejected a claim of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) that he was not empowered to take any decision on the D-12 Sector incident.

Some senior CDA officials appeared before the judge during the first day of the hearing of the judicial inquiry being conducted to probe into the reasons behind the clash on July 29 which left two persons dead.

They said if the court gave any decision in favour of the villagers of Siri Saral and Pind Sangrial, it would create problems for the CDA.

The judge turned down the plea of the CDA officials, asking them that he had been assigned the task of conducting judicial inquiry by the Lahore High Court (LHC), and if the authority had any objection on him, it could plead before the LHC. The CDA officials requested the court to cross-question the witnesses.

However, the counsel of witnesses Babar Awan advocate said under Article 132, 133, and 134 of PPC, they could not go for cross-questioning. The judge also rejected the plea of cross- questioning.

Meanwhile, some nine witnesses recorded their statements during the judicial inquiry before district and sessions judge Islamabad.

All nine witnesses accused the officials of the local police and the CDA of opening fire on the villagers.

Mohammad Azam, the brother of deceased Abdul Latif, informed the court that when the authority started using bulldozers, some villagers asked the CDA official to stop development work till they were duly compensated.

He said the police entered his house and opened fire on his brother Abdul Latif, killing him on the spot. The witness said he could recognize the policeman who killed his brother.

Another witness, Mohammad Sharif, said he and Haq Nawaz were grazing cattle, when a CDA director ordered that bulldozers be used on the land.

When Haq Nawaz tried to stop the official, he took a pistol from a policeman and shot Haq Nawaz to death. Later, the police barged into the houses and injured many people, he added.

Another villager, Malik Mohammad Akram, said he was returning from a market when he was stopped by the police from entering the village. He said he then used an alternative route to enter the village.

When he entered the village, he heard gunshots. “I saw Mohammad Latif shot to death,” he added. He said the police broke open the doors of his house and looted cash amounting to Rs0.2 million and 10 tolas of jewellery.

Mohammad Din said his 16 kanals in Siri Saral village were acquired by the CDA at a rate of Rs200 per kanal, while the market value of the land was Rs0.3 million per kanal.

He said his well and house were excluded from the award list, and the CDA officials asked him to get relief from the court in this regard.

A witness, Mian Baksh, said he could recognize the killer of Abdul Latif. Pir Nasir of Golra Sharif said the CDA had not given compensation to 1,500 deserving villagers.

Mohammad Nazir said his daughter heard a gunshot and asked him to go outside and see what was happening. “I went to the house of Abdul Latif and found him in a pool of blood,” he added.

A Reporter adds: The anti-terrorist court on Monday sent four persons on a 10-day judicial remand on charges of snatching from police a pump gun and wireless set on the day of Sri Saral tragedy.

The accused Muhammad Shaukat, Muhammad Sultan, Kala Khan and Ramzan, the residents of Sri Saral, were presented before the court after the completion of their six-day physical remand. They had been kept in Golra Police Station.

According to the police, they had snatched government property publicly and on gunpoint, and had committed terrorism.

But the accused had earlier told the court that they were innocent and the accusations were baseless. They said they did not know anything about the police gun.