OKARA: Police claimed on Tuesday to have tracked down 12 proclaimed offenders in an operation at Renala Estate Military Farm’s village 20/1-RB.

The law enforcers failed to arrest Nadeem Ashraf, president of the Anjuman-i-Mazareen Punjab who was involved in a murder case and the prime target for which the police had conducted an operation.

A force of 2,000 policemen raided village 20/1-RB to arrest Nadeem Ashraf against whom a case 384/11 under Section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code was registered by the Renala Khurd police station.

Ashraf and his accomplices allegedly killed Akram and the police jailed four of the suspects. They could not take action against Ashraf due to pressure of the farmers’ group.

About two years ago, Akram’s brother Babar Nadeem Masih moved court and Lahore High Court judge Justice Mazahir Husain Naqvi directed the Okara police just a few days ago to arrest the POs including Ashraf and produce him in court on Wednesday (today).

District Police Officer Babar Bakht Qureshi led the operation which resulted in arrest of 12 POs -- Muhammad Faisal, Yasir Bashir, Muhammad Waseem, Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Asghar, Ghulam Mustafa, Basharat Ali, Saleem, Ahmad Din, Ghulam Rasool, Muhammad Munir and Imran.

The police said Ashraf managed to escape just before the raid.

This is the first major attempt by the Okara police during the last 10 years or so to arrest ‘criminals’ because many villages in and around military farms in Okara, Renala Khurd and Kulyana Estate are considered “no-go areas”. The AMP gathers thousands of tenants on a call, which had created trouble for the police in the past.

Okara Military Farms AMP Secretary-General Mehr Abdul Sattar told Dawn that the police had damaged houses of tenants in Renala Estate Farms on the pretext of operation and the AMP leadership had decided to sit together on Wednesday (today) to protest the police highhandedness.