TOBA TEK SINGH, Jan 18: Tension between the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) on the one hand and lawyers and police on the other aggravated when the former disconnected water supply to the city police station and the house of an ASP on Saturday night.

The tension had developed on Friday when TMA staff attempted to raze some lawyers' chambers on tehsil court premises. The TMA staff had demolished a chamber owned by former bar secretary-general Anwar Mansoor Goraya when city SHO Waheed Shahid reached there and restrained them from further demolition. Lawyers informed the police that they had a court stay order against demolition.

The lawyers went on strike on Saturday against the TMA staff and called a bar general body meeting for Monday to decide the future course of action. Tehsil Municipal Officer Malik Abdul Sattar and Tehsil Officer (Regulation) Akbar Ali claimed at a press conference on Sunday that the operation against encroachers had been launched on the order of the provincial government and that it would continue without any discrimination.

They added that police had misbehaved with the TMA staff who were razing the unlawfully built chambers. They warned that if police did not change their attitude, the TMA staff would go on strike.

Meanwhile, Gojra ASP Saqib Ismail Memon said that Gojra police had never refused to cooperate with the TMA staff in their operation against encroachments but the letter sent to him for sending police did not explain when and where the police were to be sent.

When contacted, Gojra tehsil Nazim Chaudhry Khalid Javed Warraich said he had no personal enmity with any lawyer. However, hurdles in the way of the operation against encroachments should be cleared. He expressed concern that police had misbehaved with TMA staff instead of protecting them.