MULTAN, Aug 29: The Anjuman Mazareen Punjab (AMP) has filed two separate writ petitions in the Lahore High Court, one for the exhumation of the body of Suleman Masih and the other for the recovery of tenants’ leader Anwar Javed Dogar.
AMP President Chaudhry Abdul Jabbar told Dawn by telephone from Okara that the petition for the exhumation of Suleman’s body to conduct autopsy was filed by his father Pitras Masih and the habeas corpus petition for the recovery of missing AMF chairman Anwar Javed Dogar by his wife.
The body of Suleman Masih, 20, was handed over to his family by the Rangers on Aug 25, a day after the paramilitary force and police opened fire at a gathering of Okara military farm tenants. It is believed that Suleman was among the tenants rounded up by the Rangers on Aug 24 during the operation to crush tenants’ revolt for ownership rights over the lands they had been cultivating for nearly a century.
The Rangers authorities had forced the family of Suleman to bury his body without performing autopsy and other legal formalities.
The LHC issued notice to the Punjab advocate-general for Friday on the habeas petition to inform the court about the whereabouts of Dogar and detail of the charges, if any, against him.
Dogar has been missing since the Rangers and police opened fire at the tenants’ gathering in Okara on Aug 24. The authorities expressed ignorance about his whereabouts while his wife alleged that he had been arrested by the Rangers.
SIEGE CONTINUES: On the other hand, the Rangers and police had been keeping on the siege of the villages of Okara military farms for the sixth day running on Thursday.
Anyone wanting to go to the besieged villages was said to be roughed up by the law enforcers at the entry points.
The authorities had deployed more contingents around Chak 10/4L ahead of the memorial service of deceased Suleman Masih, scheduled to be held on Friday at his native village.
Top priests of Catholic sect of the Christian community, tenants’ representatives from all the 21 state-managed agricultural and livestock farms of Punjab and human rights activists are likely to attend the memorial service.
AMP general secretary Younas Iqbal told Dawn that the Rangers and police were creating hurdles to check a large gathering at the memorial service. He claimed that several residents of Chak 10/4L had been arrested on various pickets of the ‘law enforcers.’
Meanwhile, the Okara police had shifted injured tenants Mohammad Akram, Mohammad Jameel and Ghulam Rasool to Sahiwal central jail from the Okara DHQ hospital where they were under treatment after sustaining bullet injuries on Aug 24. They have been charged with killing Suleman Masih.