Re: Pak Army men GRAB prime real estate in Punjab
are you quoting the Urdu Daily again???
Sad but True!
Allah Protect Pakistan.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Boston-Karachi: *
Sad but True!
Allah Protect Pakistan.
[/QUOTE]
Finally an admission of guilt of army.
As I have always said, Army is worst enemy of Pakistan. Their only accomplishment has been to invade and cocupy their own country and people.
I have ten times more respect for the poor Punjabi farmers fighting the regime then for any general or political leader. The farmers have jazba and a belief in their cause, they are not loyalists like most of todays politicians in Punjab or elsewhere who have forgotten their roots but are ready to dance if the army gives them some land.
Hillarious!!!
-
South Asia Tribune picking up only Pakistan as it is the only 3rd world country.
-
Qazi says Musharraf is scared before and after kissing Mush’s ass
-
Musharraf making deal with Extremists
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Maula Baksh: *
Finally an admission of guilt of army.
As I have always said, Army is worst enemy of Pakistan. Their only accomplishment has been to invade and cocupy their own country and people.
I have ten times more respect for the poor Punjabi farmers fighting the regime then for any general or political leader. The farmers have jazba and a belief in their cause, they are not loyalists like most of todays politicians in Punjab or elsewhere who have forgotten their roots but are ready to dance if the army gives them some land.
[/QUOTE]
Now this guy is calling the Punjabis as being opressed? Earlier he was catalyzing Punjabi supremecy over the other provinces... heh What a homegenous anti-pakistani hate monger...
If you actually read what I wrote, I called Punajub’s loyalist politicains and their masters, the army generals as the opressors of all people. I never said a word against the average Punjabi becuase they are in the same boat as others.
Here, the brutal and cruel army killed innocent people to protect their “priceless” and illegal real estate. Where are the nationalist Punjabi leaders? Why is no prominent Punjabi leader fighting against this opression? Why are they all saying yes sir to generals instead? Is the leadership of Punjab dead to this cruelty that they cannot even question their own about this abuse?
PAKISTAN ARMY ESTABLISHMENT SHOULD BE ASHAMED FOR KILLING UNARMED WOMEN AND MEN TO PROTECT THEIR OWN LAND AND WEALTH.
This is nothing short of murder by the state. I waiting for the day people revolt against the feudal army landlords.
http://www.dawn.com/2002/08/25/top15.htm
Five Okara tenants die in police shooting
By Amjad Mahmood
LAHORE, Aug 24: Four men and a woman were killed and 15 others wounded when the police and Rangers resorted to firing to disperse tenants of the Okara military farms on Saturday.
Tenants tilling the state land in Punjab since decades have been struggling for ownership rights for quite some time. There are 21 farms in the province under the military and agriculture department control.
Reports reaching here said that heavy contingents of the police and Rangers led by Brig S.M. Tiwana besieged villages Nos 13/4-L and 4/4-L housing tenants on Okara military farms.
The residents gathered there in large numbers and objected to the presence of the police and Rangers.
The law enforcement agencies fired teargas shells before resorting to shooting in which Mohammad Akram, Haji Ghafoor, Mohammad Akbar and two unidentified persons - one man and one woman - were killed. Another 15 people were wounded.
The injured, including Shehzad Masih, Tahir Hussain, Imtiaz Ahmad, Mohammad Jamil, Ghulam Murtaza, Nazir Ahmad and Ghulam Rasool, were admitted to the Okara DHQ Hospital. The bodies were in the police custody till the filing of this report.
The police arrested Anjuman Mazareen chairman Anwar Javed Dogar when he and his wife reached Okara from Lahore. Raids were being conducted to arrest Nadeem Ashraf and other leaders of the Anjuman.
The Labour Party Pakistan and the Anjuman Mazareen Punjab have condemned the incident. The LPP has announced that it will hold a rally in Lahore on Aug 28 to protest the killings.
Rangers high-ups in Okara were reluctant to talk to reporters about the incident.
An official in the office of the IG Police denied any casualty in the incident. Only one person had sustained minor injuries, he said. Meanwhile, Anjuman president Chaudhry Abdul Jabbar, condemning the “unprovoked” attack by the Rangers and police, said that residents of all villages of Okara and Renala military farms were being harassed.
Thats really sad.
It never rains but it pours…
hmm…the situation seems to be serious…
Is this the beginning of some revolt in Pakistan? If the army doesnt stop its high handed behavior against the common people, the situation might get out of control in no time. Although the situation of Pakistan with India, is tense these days, and the Indians are just waiting for the appriopriate time for the ‘decisive battle’ against Pakistan. On the other hand it seems that the Pakistanis are complacent. If the situation persists, do they think that the common people will support the army in the war, if their behavior continues to be humiliating for the common man.
State has no right to kill unarmed citizens
The killing of five peasants from Chak 4-4L in Okara, including a woman, by a contingent of the Rangers and district police led by no less than an officer of the rank of a Brigadier of the Pakistan army on Saturday 24th August is a murderous and cowardly act. Scores of other villagers were also injured. The tragedy, say reports, began when the paramilitary contingent besieged the village. The tenants wanted to know why they had been imprisoned in their own homes. The argument apparently led to an exchange of hot words between the lowly tenants and the high and mighty of the land. **The contingent decided to “conquer” the village. Since the incident, hundreds of police, military and Rangers personnel have besieged more than 10 villages of Okara military farms. What’s going on? **
There is an old and simmering dispute over land. The tenants want ownership of land that they tilled for centuries until the British colonialists created the institution of private property and deprived them of ownership. That pattern has continued after independence. The state of Pakistan, too, refuses to grant ownership of land to these hapless tenants and is prepared to use its coercive might to vanquish them. The laws governing tenancy are all archaic and colonial. The farms, 21 in the Punjab, are either run by the military or the Punjab Agriculture Department. The dispute has been simmering for a long time but the last seven months have seen repeated incidents of paramilitary forces attacking and besieging villages and killing and injuring tenants. Successive governments, instead of taking an enlightened view of the archaic laws and court verdicts under the British government, have allowed the provincial government and the army to take the law into their hands and act as an occupying force.
Earlier, on June 9, a heavy police contingent besieged and attacked a village in Peerowal. All entry and exit points were cordoned off and villagers were beaten up. In other incidents of firing and intimidation people have been killed and wounded. All these criminal acts, indulged by “law enforcement” personnel and, most significantly in some cases, by army officers, have gone unpunished and matters have gone from bad to worse.
The land dispute itself goes back to the Colonization Act of 1912 when the tenants were deprived of land they had brought to life through their own means. At the time the British authorities handed over the land to the British Cotton Growing Association. The Act assumed that the British Colonial Government had full rights and jurisdiction over all lands in every dependency. This assumption was also upheld by a judicial committee of the Privy Council. Both the law and its interpretation, which have continued to this date, however, negate and violate not only land rights under Islamic law but also rights under customary law as well as the law relating to ancient usages.
The wound has been festering. The cause of the tenants has now been taken up by the Tenants Association of Punjab (TAP), a nearly one million-strong body which is at the cutting edge of the movement for securing ownership rights for the landless peasants. It wants the government to heed the just demand of the tenants who are seeking a final settlement of the issue. Interestingly, neither the military nor the Punjab Seed Corporation, own the land. Yet they grab the lion’s share of harvests every season. The latest unrest has been sparked by additional demands made by them on the peasants. Unfortunately, the government’s response shows it is not serious in resolving the issue. While on the one hand both the Punjab and the federal government have promised to ensure the tenants their rights and a just package, on the other hand they have unleashed troops against the poor tenants.
The government needs to take a few quick steps. First, it should order the siege of the villages to be lifted forthwith. Second, it must bring to an immediate end the harassment of villagers as well as people working at the military farms. Reports indicate these government and semi-government employees are being slapped with show-cause notices. Three, the government should immediately order a judicial inquiry into the latest incident as well as previous incidents to determine culpability. Four, the culprits, once found, should be tried for use of excessive force and punished accordingly. Finally, the government should begin to address the festering problem and look into the archaic laws that have continued to hamper a judicious solution to this issue. This situation cannot be allowed to persist. In the final analysis, the peasants need the land, the military doesn’t. All this talk of “outside elements” instigating the ignorant peasants is nonsense. The peasants have a right to be organised, to agitate for their demands, and to seek redress from the state. But the state has no right to kill its own non-violent, unarmed citizens.