LAHORE, Dec 10: The Anjuman-i-Mazareen Punjab (AMP) ended its five-hour sit-in on Tuesday night when Lahore police registered a complaint against Okara police for arresting the AMP president without informing them.

Some 50 tenants blocked the Abbot Road at around 4:30pm on Tuesday when its newly-elected president, Khushi Dola, was arrested by Okara police. The Lahore police tried to convince the tenants to end their protest but the latter insisted on registering a case against the Okara SP.

They ended their protest at around 9:30pm after a complaint was lodged against Okara policemen with Ghari Shahu police station.

DSP concerned Tahir Alam while speaking to tenants praised them for their patience and courage. He also sympathized with them and said they were a victim of oppression. He termed the Okara police action illegal and without lawful authority.

Earlier, picking up of the Anjuman Mazareen Punjab (AMP) president after a peaceful rally on Tuesday forced tenants to stage a sit-in on the Abbot Road.

The police picked up Khushi Dola from Mehfil cinema when about 2,000 activists of the AMP, the Labour Party, the Mazdoor Kissan Party and some NGOs were dispersing after holding a peaceful march from the cinema up to the Central Telegraph House on the McLeod Road just opposite the Lahore High Court.

The sit-in protest that started at around 4:30pm was continuing till the filing of the report at 8:00pm as the Garhi Shahu police refused to entertain a complaint of AMP leaders against the Okara SP.

Labour Party secretary-general Farooq Tariq, who was at the head of the rally, said DSP Tahir Alam had admitted that the Okara police had taken the step without informing the authorities concerned. He quoted the DSP as saying that he was initiating a disciplinary action against the policemen concerned.

Meanwhile, talks were continuing between the police and over 200 protesters to end the sit-in which was hampering traffic on the Abbot Road and link roads.

Earlier, the tenants, about 2,000 in number, held a convention in the Mehfil cinema to re-organize their movement to get ownership rights of the state land. New office-bearers of the movement were also elected on the occasion.

Then the tenants along with activists of the Labour Party, the Mazdoor Kissan Party, and NGOs ASR, the People Rights Movement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Justice and Peace Commission and the Women Workers Organization held a rally.

Participants, including a good number of women activists, were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the US, the Pakistan government and management of the military farms and demanding release of the arrested AMP chairman Anwar Javed Dogar.

Mr.Dogar was in custody since Aug 24 when tenants of Okara military farms had refused to sign lease contracts with the farms management.

The protesters also marched from Mehfil cinema on Abbot Road up to Central Telegraph House on McLeod Road. A police contingent did not allow them to approach the Lahore High Court where they wanted to submit a memorandum to the chief justice.

However, the police took a five-member delegation, comprising Nighat Saeed of the ASR, Mahboob Ahmad of the HRCP, Aqila Naz of the AMP and Rubina Jamil and Salma Liaquat of the WWO, to additional registrar of the LHC to submit the memorandum.

The court official assured the team that no pressure from any quarter would be allowed to influence proceedings of the tenants’ petition about military farms. The petition is currently being heard by a single bench of the LHC.

The rally participants chanted slogans against the US for its reported intentions to attack Iraq, and against globalization and price hike.

Traffic remained suspended on the Abbot Road, Laxmi Chowk and McLeod Road during the demonstration.