SAHIWAL: Around 80 farmers, office-bearers and activists of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) were detained at various police stations of Sahiwal division.

Law enforcement agencies and police detained farmers to stop them from marching on Islamabad to stage a protest sit-in outside Parliament House on Wednesday.

The regional police officer’s (RPO) spokesperson confirmed to Dawn that Okara, Pakpattan and Sahiwal police detained 66, one, and 19 PKI activists, respectively.

On Tuesday afternoon, Arifwala City police had raided the farmhouse of PKI Punjab President Chaudhry Rizwan Iqbal and taken him into custody. Lawyer Ahmed Zeeshan Khokhar from Arifwala district court told Dawn that the police had not registered any case against the detainees, who were kept in lock-ups and investigation rooms.

Mr Iqbal told Dawn over the phone that around 1,000 farmers had succeeded to reach Islamabad and protested peacefully in front of the National Press Club. He said the PKI had confirmed that farmers had been detained in other districts as well, including Vehari, Kasur, Rahim Yar Khan, Khanewal and Toba Take Singh.

On Wednesday morning, PKI Divisional President Muhammad Hussain had managed to reach Chakri, Lahore-Islamabad motorway section along with 100 farmers. While addressing at Chakri, he said, “PKI farmers are not going to topple the Imran Khan government in Islamabad, but to demand our genuine rights.”

He said the PKI believed in negotiations and their leadership negotiated with top federal and provincial ministers and adviser to the PM in Islamabad for three days, “but got nothing out of it”. The PKI chose a constitutional way to demand its rights, but the government started arresting peaceful activists from Punjab.

Iqbal demanded immediate release of the detained farmers.

The RPO’s spokesperson said no first information report had been registered against any farmer in any police station of Sahiwal division.

Former provincial agriculture minister, Malik Nadeem Kamran of the PML-N, condemned the farmers’ arrest and demanded their immediate release.

OKARA: More than 70 PKI activists of the Khalid Mehmood Khokhar group were held by police overnight on Tuesday to stop them from participating in Wednesday’s protest in front of Parliament House.

Hundreds of farmers blocked the Haveli Lakha railway crossing against the arrests and demanded their immediate release. The activists had been detained in lock-ups of Haveli Lakha, Dipalpur, Hujra Shah Muqeem, Gogera and other police stations. The district police had set up pickets to stop the farmers.

However, the farmers pledged to join hands with the PKI leadership to press for their genuine demands for which they had been struggling for 10 years. Till the filing of this report, no case had been registered against the detained farmers.

Meanwhile, the Jamaat-i-Islami farmers wing Pakistan Kissan Board’s local chapter president, Advocate Chaudhry Shaukat Ali Chaddhar, announced to go to Lahore to join the PKB protest on Thursday (today) in front of the Punjab Assembly.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2020