LAHORE, Feb 6: Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan has got his facts wrong about the Okara Military Farms, say the Labour Party Pakistan and the Kissan Rabita Committee.

"The DG's claim that military has got the land on lease from the Punjab government is totally wrong," secretary-general of LPP and KRC Farooq Tariq told a news conference on Sunday.

He also rejected another claim of Shaukat Sultan that the land was needed for defence purposes.

"These fields (Okara military farms) are neither situated on border nor used for any defence training. Rather, the land is being used for agricultural purposes. For how long the army would keep producing milk and butter at the Okara farms and call it defence of the country."

The army, he said, was refusing to accept legal rights of the tenants who had been tilling the land for last one century. He said the police on Saturday had opened fire and injured eight years old Boby, son of Mukhtar Masih. "The blame of firing, as usual, has been put on Mazaeen. This has been a pattern of events on these farms. The law enforcing agencies kill tenants but hold them responsible for the death."

AMP: Talking to Dawn, a spokesman of the Anjuman Mazreen Pakistan said that now army had directly moved into the farms instead of rangers and was trying to get it vacated. He said the military had started expanding its presence beyond the Cantonment limits. "It is now slowly occupying land around the cantonment and intimidating tenants." That was why, he said, military had established pickets on roads and fields.

The Saturday's protest, according to him, was the last option with the tenants to register their protest with higher authorities, he maintained.

"The tenants have been protesting against this attitude of the army but no one seemed to be listening," he claimed. He also contested the claim of ISPR DG that the land had been leased out to military.

"The land belongs to the Punjab government and its has neither given it to army nor leased it out. The army has simply occupied it and is now trying to deprive tenants of their right of tenancy," the AMP spokesman said.

It may be mentioned here that trouble started on the farms when military tried to change terms of tenancy of these tenants who have been tilling these lands for over nine decades. The army wanted them to accept contract (thaika) instead of tenancy terms. According to law, a contract can be terminated any time after a specific notice period or its renewal can be blocked if the land owner wishes so but a tenant cannot be thrown out under the law.

ISPR: The Okara cantonment was approved by the federal government in 1967 over a land of 12,005 acres. The construction of barracks and allied facilities have been coming up as needed, says ISPR.

As the complete area allocated for the cantonment is not immediately required by the army, it is given to tenants for cultivation.

The expansion of the Okara cantonment within cantonment boundaries is an on-going process. Recently when construction of accommodation started, some civilians interfered in the construction work. Some miscreants from Chak 15/4-L and from other villages have been harassing and instigating innocent people of Chak 15/4-L to force contractors to stop construction work and take up arms in the cantonment area.

In order to establish writ of the government and provide protection to the innocent population of the area, military police checkposts were established on Tabruk-Shabhor road within the limits of Okara cantonment. Three pickets have also been established on routes leading to cantonment area so that construction work could progress uninterrupted.

On Feb 3, some armed miscreants moved to the Dera of tenant Altaf of Chak 15/4-L to establish a bunker there. Police force was immediately moved to the site to apprehend the miscreants who later fled towards Chak 15/4-L.

On Feb 4, military authorities agreed to hold talks with elders of Chak 15/4-L but they never turned up.

On Feb 5, farmers from different villages blocked the national highway and railway link between Tabruk and Okara city. The people who blocked road asked for moving the pickets, particularly the one near the Dera of Altaf. They assured the administration that no interference in the cantonment development work would come from their side.

The picket at the Dera of Altaf had been relocated and tenant Altaf had been re-assured about sincerity of Okara cantonment administration, the ISPR said.