HYDERABAD, Nov 10: The residents of Jam Suleman Samoon village and Issa Khan Thebo village on Sunday staged a demonstration outside the local press club against “attempt to occupy their lands by the Petaro College administration”.

The demonstration was led by Aijaz Samoon, who told journalists that the college administration was trying to evict villagers despite the fact that they possessed the documents of the land.

He said that the college administration had purchased only four acres of land from one of the villagers, Usman, adding that the administration of the Petaro college was trying to dispossess other villagers from their ancestral properties.

Reports say that the college administration sent some labourers on Saturday evening to raise a boundary wall around the purchased land but the villagers resisted the move.

An FIR was also registered with the Jamshoro police station in this regard.

Ten villagers were reportedly arrested by the police but they were released on Sunday morning.

The situation is tense in the area as the villagers appear to be determined not to allow the college administration to raise the boundary wall.

Aijaz Samoon said that the Petaro College administration had suspended water supply to the villages on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, authorities of the Cadet College, Petaro, in a press release, said the college owned a piece of land in its southwest along the road.

The authorities said on Nov 7, the college employees began work to barricade the land with angled-iron and barbed wires in order to save it from encroachment.

While the employees were working, some miscreants came there and tried to create hindrance. The matter was reported to the Jamshoro police station. The law-enforcing personnel arrived there after sometime and the work was resumed and completed in their presence.

An FIR was also registered against the miscreants.