OKARA: The office-bearers of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) of the Bath faction told a press conference on Wednesday that they plan to block GT Road at Okara bypass and the railway line over the failure of the Shehbaz government to fulfil farmers’ demands, which it had accepted two weeks ago in the wake of a farmers’ nine-day long protest in Islamabad.

PKI-Bath senior provincial vice president Ghulam Mustafa Wattoo with other leaders said that hundreds of farmers remained in Islamabad for nine days for the acceptance of their 15-year-old demands. They returned to their hometowns after senior government officials agreed to fix Rs13 per unit for agri tube well, issue interest-free loans for farmers, cut in DAP and urea fertilisers and provision of subsidised solar penal for tube wells.

He said there had been no compliance with the agreed points by the government. He demanded that new power and fertiliser rates be implemented and fertilizers’ black marketing be checked.

The Bath group has given the protest call for Nov 15 for road and railway line blockades. Earlier in 2011, the Bath group had forced the then government to accept pro-farmer demands through a relentless sit-in and train blockade.

The office-bearers said the Nov 15 plan would also be as fierce as of 2011.

KILLED: A gunman fell victim to bullet shots of his accomplices late on Tuesday, the Haveli Lakkha police said.

The night patrolling team was alerted that three gunmen had snatched a motorcycle and cash on Basirpur-Adleeky Sohag Road. The police spotted the gunmen near Al-Abbas Town on Basirpur Road. Meanwhile, another patrolling van also arrived there and both teams told the gunmen to surrender but the gunmen started shooting which was retaliated. The trade of bullets continued for 15 minutes.

When the guns went silent, the police team found one of the gunmen dead from the bullets injuries of his accomplices. The police found a weapon and the snatched motorcycle on him. The police shifted the body to the Okara District Headquarters City Hospital mortuary for a postpartum.

On the report of Haveli Sub-Inspector Muhammad Sarwar, a case was registered against unidentified gunmen. The deceased was identified as Ghulam Mustafa, alias Tehnee, of neighbourhood Peer Islam. He was wanted and involved in 40 criminal cases registered at PS Haveli Lakkha.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2022