Two cops among six injured as farmers evicted from land in Charsadda

CHARSADDA: Six persons, including two policemen, sustained injuries during a police action to evict farmers from around 200 acre of land in Tangi area on the directives of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday, official sources said.

The sources said the police launched the operation to get the land vacated from the farmers. Additional contingents from other districts were also deployed in the area during the action. The police also arrested 100 persons, including local political activists, under the Maintenance of Public Order. The farmers made announcements on loudspeakers of mosques when the police reached the area at 3am to launch the operation. The farmers wanted the people to come out of their homes to resist eviction.

The farmers’ families, including women, children and elderly people came out of their homes holding copies of the Holy Quran to stop the police from the operation.

They were chanting slogans against the government and the landowners. The protesters said their forefathers had levelled the uncultivable land for farming around 80 years back. They said that the landowners wanted the land back when the famers worked on it for decades and made it cultivable and fertile.

They were demanding resolution of the issue through peaceful means. The farmers' representatives reminded that that they had resisted such moves in the past and would not hesitate to render sacrifices for their rights. The protesters also announced boycott of the upcoming anti-polio drive in the area as a mark of protest. The landowners had approached the court with the plea that the farmers had occupied their land. They wanted the court's orders to get the land vacated from farmers.

Reports said that 430 families were occupying more than a hundred acres of land in Tangi tehsil in Charsadda district. Last year also, an attempt was made to get the land vacated when the landowners won a lawsuit, but its didn't succeed.

Later, speaking at a press conference, Deputy Commissioner Muntazir Khan and District Police Officer Zahoor Afridi said the administration got vacated 285 kanals of land from farmers on the directives of the PHC.

They said that the peaceful action was taken after six contempt of court notices were issued to the administration. They explained that the police and district administration had no grudge against the farmers, but the action had to be taken for the restoration of the writ of the government.

Deputy Commissioner Muntazir Khan said that 1,200 security personnel took part in the operation. He claimed that the action was peaceful and only three policemen sustained minor injuries during resistance by the farmers.

He said that the anti-polio drive would be made successful at any cost. However, Member Provincial Assembly Khalid Khan Mohmand, who belongs to the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), rejected the official claim that the administration had got vacated the land from farmers.