Panic gripped the students of the Lahore School of Economics (LSE) and residents of the Bharath village located near Phase-8, Defense Housing Authority (DHA) on Wednesday due to firing by villagers at the DHA security personnel and aerial firing by the local police to control the situation.
Three DHA security guards received minor bullet injuries when the villagers opened fire at them in retaliation to an attempt by around 25 DHA security personnel to acquire a 42-kanal piece of land owned by the villagers.
The firing lasted for half an hour, forcing the LSE students to stay inside the campus for security reasons.
Burki Station House officer (SHO) Ateeque Dogar told Pakistan Today that around 25 men of DHA security, under the supervision of Colonel Zulifqar, tried to acquire the 42-kanal disputed land located inside the Phase-8, DHA.
The land is owned by the residents of Bharath village, including Malik Mudassar, Shahjahan and others. He said that as the DHA security personnel reached the site, 25-30 villagers opened fire on them.
The firing injured three security personnel Abdul Qayyum, Muhammed Haneef and Abdul Rauf.
Dogar said that a case has been registered against the villagers and all the nominated men have been arrested by the police.
The SHO said that the villagers in police custody have claimed that the case was in the civil court and a bailiff with court orders had helped them in acquiring the disputed land a couple of months ago, adding that the DHA security has violated the court orders by trying to acquire the land forcibly on Wednesday.
Dogar said that the Burki Police will also register a case against the officials of the DHA security for violating the court orders, on the complaint of the villagers.
The DHA security officials have claimed that the villagers have grabbed the land, blaming the Burki Police of not including the sections of land grabbing in the case.
