KARACHI – Dozens of dock workers were reportedly injured after an angry mob attacked the Grain and Fertiliser Terminal (GFT), Port Qasim on Tuesday afternoon and the Rangers opened fire and used teargas shells to disperse the enraged protesters. Cargo handling at the country’s first grain and fertiliser-dedicated terminal was suspended as hundreds of ’employees of stevedoring companies’ entered the terminal premises and started beating up the labourers while trying to ransack cargo-handling equipment at the Rs 10 billion facility.
For months, the managements of the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) and Fauji Akbar Portia Marine Terminals (FAP) are at loggerheads, with the former demanding employment of workers at the terminal and the latter finding no room for manual work at the fully-automated facility. “Around 20 of our injured workers were admitted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and the Pakistan Steel hospital, while cargo handling has also been suspended,” a FAP officer told Pakistan Today.
He said that over 1,000 employees of various stevedoring firms forcefully entered the terminal at around 3 pm and roughed up the workers on duty. “Some of FAP employees were even stuffed in the gutters,” he claimed. “Cargo handling of the two berthed vessels, carrying thousands of tonnes of wheat and rice, was stopped due to the hours-long standoff between the protestors and the law enforcers,” the officer said.
The Rangers have succeeded in forcing the protesters out of the port, he said. However, operations at GFT were suspended until the filing of this report. “As per the Implementation Agreement, the PQA is to ensure external security of the terminal… but they did not stop the protesters, rather it looks like that the PQA security personnel deliberately let the attackers in,” said the FAP officer, holding the PQA responsible for the incident.
He said the attack was a sheer violation of the Sindh High Court order, which had issued a stay order in the case. “They attacked the terminal despite the fact that the matter is sub-judice,” the official said. “Enough is enough! We are now seriously thinking that whether or not we should run this terminal,” another FAP officer said, adding that the FAP was also considering initiating legal action against the PQA authorities for the ‘breach of agreement.’
However, the protesters gave a totally different version. “The Rangers first started baton-charging our colleagues, which lead to violence,” said Gul Khan, a spokesman of the terminal labourers. Khan said that around 25 to 30 of the protesters were wounded in the violence started by the Rangers personnel. “Some of the protesters even dived into the sea to avoid the Rangers’ assault,” he claimed.
