Farmers baton-charged

JHANG: Police allegedly baton-charged farmers, who were protesting against the Food Department staffers for favouring middlemen at a wheat procurement centre at Koriana on Sunday.  The farmers were protesting against the food staffers when the police reached there and allegedly baton-charged them. As a result, farmer Muhammad Amin fell unconscious. Rescue 1122 officials reached the spot and provided emergency treatment to the victim.  A similar situation was also witnessed at a wheat procurement centre in Satellite Town on Saturday. A number of farmers stood in queues for hours to get their names registered for gunny bags, but they were allegedly ignored by the officials. The farmers after accusing the food officials of favouring the middlemen staged a demonstration. Later, the Food Department officials called the police, who allegedly baton-charged the protesting farmers to disperse them. The policemen also thrashed the cameraman of a private news channel for covering the incident.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Mudassar Riaz Malik and District Police Officer Humayun Masood Sindhu were not available. However, District Food Controller Muhammad Aslam claimed that grievances of the farmers at procurement centres were being redressed on priority basis. He further claimed that the police were called to protect the Food Department officials and not for beating the farmers.