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[
PAKISTAN ]
Naseem Nayyar
Executive Secretary
(NCJP)
National Commission for Justice
and Peace
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[
Report from
Correspondent ]
Tension prevails on Okara military farms as tenant buried
(Okara) August 28: There is no let-up in the tension on Okara military
farms, as police and rangers continue to besiege villages where most of
tenants and their leaders live.
Due to the continuous blockade of the Chaks 4/4L and 13/4L, life has
become paralyzed, as even the injured of the August 24 firing could not
be taken to the hospitals so far. Those, who were taken to the hospital
on Saturday last, had been arrested by the law-enforcement agencies for
urdering? Suleman Masih (20).
Suleman body was, meanwhile buried on Tuesday. Tenants had earlier
refused to do so without meeting legal formalities, including undertaking
an autopsy.
However, on the pressure of the rangers, Christian clergymen and
tenants?leaders, the relatives agreed to perform last rites of Suleman
without getting the post-modern performed.
According to the eyewitnesses, his body had started stinking and
decomposing. They said authorities handed over the body in a wooden coffin
and were stressing that the box should be opened. But the family opened
it and found the body ortured black and blue besides having bullet
injuries?
The rangers, on the other hand, are claiming that Suleman was killed by
the tenants?leaders in order to exploit eath of a Christian?at the
international forums.
Bishop Joseph Coutts Bishop of Faisalabad, Pakistan and nine other
people have also written a letter to President Musharraf to inform him
about the circumstances under which they were forced to bury the body.
Tenants told that the police had registered a murder case against several
residents of the military farms.
The injured, who were later arrested are said to be chained at hospital
beds. While 6 people have been missing since August 24, they day ranger
and police opened fire on them.
Though, Okara Saddar Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Fazal
Mehmood, had told the tenants that the missing were in fact in the custody of
Chuckhak police, none of their family had so far been allowed to meet
them.
This had been creating doubts about their lives and security, president
of Anjuman Mazareen, Chaudhry Abdul Jabbar said.
Meanwhile vice president of Anjuman Mazareen Punjab, Dr. Christopher
John, speaking at a press conference at Khanewal on Wednesday, claimed
that some elements in the government wanted to turn peaceful movement of
tenants into a violent struggle through oppression.
He demanded an impartial inquiry of the Okara military farm tragedy,
release of all the detained tenants and their leaders, restoration of
negotiations between government and the tenants and registration of the
case against the real murderers of Suleman Masih.
He stressed that the government should involve the real stakeholders
like revenue board in dialogue with the tenants instead of negotiating at
gunpoint through rangers and police. END.
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