OKARA, July 2 Three people were injured when two rival groups freely used firearms for two hours in a clash over bus stand fee at the General Bus Stand on Thursday.
The tehsil municipal administration started receiving bus stand fee at the General Bus Stand from July 1 after its contract with a contractor ended on June 30.
The men of Ashraf Group arrived at the stand on Wednesday night to occupy the fee collection point. At the same time the men of Hanif Group also came there, but police took no notice of their activities. The men from both sides clashed at about 8am on Thursday and continued firing for about two hours.
The incessant shooting made most commuters to flee and many of them hid themselves under the parked vehicles. Those who had already taken their seats in the buses were crying for help, but to no avail.
People were panicked when the bullets fired in the air by the men of these groups fell in Depalpur Road and Old Kutchery areas, about 1km from the shooting site. GT Road remained closed for two hours.
Citizen Munir Ansari, bus gunman Muhammad Sharif and an unidentified man were injured by bullets fired by these criminal groups. Police reached the scene after the criminals stopped the firing and arrested Maqbool, Mumraiz, Nadeem, Fazal Abbas, Tufail, Tariq, Ghulam Murtaza, Mukhtar Ahmad, Shahid Mehmood and Khalid Mehmood. Police also seized weapons from those arrested.
PROTEST Rickshaw drivers took out a rally against imposition of Rs150 monthly tax upon them by the tehsil municipal administration.
The drivers who came to the rally on Tehsil Road with their rickshaws raised slogans against the TMA, saying that nowhere in Punjab the tax on rickshaws had been imposed. They demanded that the TMA withdraw the tax immediately.
PMA DEMO The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) staged a protest against the police outside the Okara Press Club.
The protesting doctors and paramedics, led by Dr Shaukat Ali and Dr Ishtiaq Ali, slammed the police for not arresting the criminals who robbed Dr Khushnood Anwar's house in Rehmatullah Town a couple of days ago.
Robbers reportedly took away cash, ornaments, cell phones and a rifle, all worth Rs1,200,000, from Dr Anwar's house.