AWP decries attempts to implicate Okara farmers through staged terrorist ‘encounter’
This morning the DPO Okara claimed to have killed six terrorists of a banned organization in an ’encounter’ in Chak 28-R at the Kulyana Military Estate in Okara. The police also claimed that the terrorists were hiding at the dera of Naeem Jakhar, who is the younger brother of Malik Salim Jakhar one of main leaders of Anjman Mozareen Punjab (AMP) who is currently in jail for his role in the AMP’s struggle for land rights.
However, according to information gathered by the AWP from the ground thus far, the six ’terrorists’ were brought in by the police themselves to Major (retd) Faqir Hussain’s Dera at Kulyana Military Estate last night and were killed on the spot.
While the AWP is not aware of the identity of those killed, who may as well have been militants (who were likely already under police custody from earlier), we know for a fact that they were not present at Naeem Jakhar’s place as the DPO is claiming.
The AWP has long opposed brutal Islamist militancy and called for civilian state intervention to protect ordinary people’s lives. However, in this case, the Awami Workers Party is deeply concerned at what appears to be a blatant attempt to implicate AMP leaders in terrorism cases to build the case for their ongoing persecution and undermine the AMP’S struggle for land rights. Already, Naeem Jakhar’s tractor and animals have been taken into police custody in his absence.
It is telling that in the same night, the police also raided the house of AMP Women leader Badrunissa to attempt to arrest her, and she barely managed to flee Okara fearing for her life.
Yet again fear is spreading among the tenants of Okara, who have simply been engaged in a peaceful struggle for land rights and have no connections to any banned militant organizations. All the main leaders of the AMP are already in jail under false charges for the crime of organizing peaceful protests. The National Action Plan is being used against the peasants and cases registered against them under anti-terrorist laws and this event appears to be a means to accelerate this form of victimization.
The Awami Workers Party demands an independent and transparent investigation into this encounter and an immediate end of the persecution of AMP leaders and the Okara peasantry. This encounter, if indeed staged, represents a dangerous trend of police and intelligence officials employing terrorist encounters to implicate and criminalize peaceful political activists. AWP and AMP will continue their peaceful struggle for the recognition of land rights in Okara and comprehensive land reform across the country.
AWP