TANGI: Following multiple notices for contempt of court, the Charsadda District Administration along with a large contingent of police evicted tenants from an area in Tangi on Thursday, reported local English daily.
Almost 1,1000 police officers including 40 lady police officials and contingents from law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area.
However, the tenants put up stiff resistance resulting in clashes which left at least four tenants, including a woman, and two policemen injured.
The land reforms introduced during the tenure of former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto resulted in the occupation of thousands of acres of land by farm workers who then cultivated the land. After the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government passed a new tenancy law, the landowners looked to the courts again.
Following court orders, the Charsadda district administration on Thursday launched an operation against tenants occupying around 285 kanals of land in Hindu Kali and Onadaro Kali area of Tangi.
Senior officials in a news conference announced that they had launched the operation after the district administration received four contempt of court orders from the courts.
The tenants of the area including the women and children put up stiff resistance and did not give into the police. Attempts by the police to break the will of the tenants by taking into custody their leaders only served to stoke the fire. Women came onto the streets armed with sticks, while some even raised the Holy Quran cursing the landowners and police taking over the land. They said that they had been cultivating the land since it was barren and now that it has been irrigated, the landowners want it back. They stated that they will not give into the pressures and will fight for it “till the end.”
Land Owner Association President Akbar Nawaz Khan said that these illegal tenants were currently occupying almost 600,000 kanals of land in different parts of Tangi.
