MULTAN, Sept 2: Women and children of the tenants of Okara military farms staged protest rallies in a number of villages on Monday to condemn “the highhandedness of the Rangers and police”.

Participants of rallies in Chak 4/4L, 5/4L, 9/4L, and 8/4L chanted slogans against the Rangers and police personnel who had been laying siege to villages of Okara military farms since August 24.

Speaking on the occasion, the leaders of Anjuman Mazareen Punjab’s women wing said the siege had paralysed life in the villages and restricted the movement of residents.

They pointed out that schools in Okara military farms had not opened after the summer vacation on August 26 due to the deployment of Rangers and police on the school premises.

The rallyists warned that the authorities would never be able to make the tenants sign lease agreements by use of force. They reiterated the popular slogan of the tenants of 21 state-managed agricultural and livestock farms, ‘Ownership or Death’.

It may be added here that tenants of the official farms in Punjab have joined hands under the umbrella of Anjuman Mazareen to demand ownership of the land they have been cultivating for nearly a century. The government is trying to pressurize them into withdrawing their demand and accepting leases on yearly basis. On August 24, heavy contingents of Rangers and police laid siege to Chak 4/4L and 13/4L with an alleged intention to take possession of land.

However, the tenants put up resistance, whereupon the ‘law-enforcers’ opened fire, inflicting injuries on a number of villagers and rounding up tens of others. The body of 20-year-old Suleman Masih who had supposedly been arrested was handed over to his family the next day by the Rangers. A murder case was lodged against the tenant leaders.

Of the arrested tenants, Liaquat Ali and Mohammad Nawaz of Chak 10/4L were released from Sahiwal Jail on bail the other day. Talking to this reporter on telephone, Mr Ali claimed that Anjuman chairman Javed Anwar Dogar was being subjected to severe physical torture that included administration of electric shocks.

It may be mentioned here that Mr Dogar had been amiss since the joint operation of Rangers and police at the farms. Initially, the authorities denied that Mr Dogar was in their custody. However, when his wife moved the Lahore High Court for habeas corpus, the authorities admitted that he was under arrest at the Sahiwal Jail. The Anjuman chairman would be produced in the court of Okara district and session judge on September 4 under an LHC directive.