PAKISTAN: Call for the immediate arrest of the military officers responsible for the murder of two farmers and causing injury to 29 others including 14 women

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that  military officers –  three Lieutenant Colonels and the other a  Major in the Pakistan Army , fired live bullets into a peaceful protest by  farmers and later attacked them resulting in killing 02 farmers on the spot, and causing injuries to 29 others, 14 amongst them were women. 

The AHRC received reports that the officers have fired live bullets, point blank, at the peaceful demonstrators and that the shots were fired directly aimed at their heads and upper parts of the body.  The incident had taken place when the peasant farmers were protesting against the unilateral confiscation of 675 acres land by the military – the land on which more than 100 tenant farmers have been growing crops. It is reported that following the shooting, military personnel have taken away the dead bodies of the 02 farmers killed to an undisclosed location where they have kept the bodies overnight. 

The AHRC has also been informed that the injured persons are receiving treatment at the Central Military Hospital in the Okara District, Punjab, and are not allowed visitors including even their immediate family members. 

Following this incident, 70 other farmers have also been arrested and charges have been framed and cases instituted against 150 peasant farmers including peasant leaders. They have been charged with murder, attempted murder, hooliganism, arson and other criminal charges.

CASE NARRATIVE:

The AHRC has received this information from Mr. Mehar Abdul Sattar and Mr. Chaman of Anjuman Muzarain Punjab (representing the peasant organization), from the Women in Struggle for Empowerment (WISE), from the Awami Workers Party (AWP) and from Ms. Basra Bibi, who is an eye witness to the military shooting.

As per the information received, around two weeks earlier, the Okara military farms management, situated in the Okara District in Punjab Province, had forcibly evicted and evacuated tenant farmers from a 675 acre plot of land, in which around 100 farmers had earned their livelihood through cultivation of various crops. The Management had also terminated their tenant agreements while also increasing the rent for the lands to Pakistan Rupees 22,000 from Rs 17, 000 per 25 acres charged previously.

Following the eviction orders, the farmers have refused to heed to the demands of the Military Farms Management and had in protest, blocked all water supplies to these lands by closing the water sluicegates – that passes through the chack number 15/4/L (the villages there are divided by ‘Chack’ numbers). On the  3rd of  July 2014, as a mark of protest around  700-800 peasant farmers had gathered at the Chack N. 15/4/L, against their forced eviction  and peacefully demanded that they be restored with the land for cultivation which they had been engaged in for decades past. Infuriated by the actions of the farmers the Military Farms Management had as retaliation, taking the law onto their hands and had attacked the farmers who were staging the peaceful and passive protest.   

According to information received from eyewitnesses, at around 4pm in the afternoon, around one thousand (1000) military men led by Lieutenant Colonel Awais, Lieutenant Colonel Shahzad, Lieutenant Colonel Ata Mustafa and Major Nadeem had arrived at the scene in military vehicles and had forcibly opened the water sluicegates that had been closed by the farmers. This action had agitated the farmers who had continued their protest by raising their voices and slogans etc, against the military action. According to reports, the military officers had then launched their attack shooting live bullets blindly into the crowds of farmers assembled there, The farmers then had disbursed and ran away seeking protection, while military men had chased the farmers and physically assaulted them which resulted in the deaths of two farmers, Mr. Hasan Wadwana, 24 years old, and Mr. Noor Ahmad Kamboh, 50 years old both residents of the area of Chak 15/4/L. The military assault had also injured 29 others which included 14 women. AHRC received information that Hasan was hit four times at the back of his body, and in the front of his head and sides while Noor Kamboh was shot with three bullets into his stomach area and face, in front of his home and in view of all his family members. 

According to eye witness accounts, the two bodies of the two peasant farmers so murdered had been taken away by the military officers, and the bodies had remained in their custody overnight for more than 18 hours, before the military men had brought the already decomposing bodies and thrown them in the area of the Chack.

The 29 injured, including 14 women have sustained bullet injuries on their arms, legs and some on their heads. The nine seriously injured have been admitted to different hospitals in Okara and 20 others, who are injured, are still being held in custody by the military. Their relatives are not allowed to see, visit them nor contact them. AHRC has received information that thousands of peasant farmers are still protesting, on a daily basis at Grand Trunk Road Okara demanding that, the military officers must be prosecuted on the charges of murder, attempt to murder and abusing the women, they be handed back their land, and their loved ones and the cases filed against 70 persons including 28 main leaders of AMP, including Mahr Abdul Sattar general secretary, Nadeem Asharaf, vice president, Malik Salim Jakhar, vice president and Husnain Sarwer, a local journalist who sent accurate reporting of the incident to Nawai Waqat daily. His father late Sarwer Mujahid died 4 years earlier after he was denied medical treatment during his jail period and his one leg was cut. He was also charged supporting the struggle of the tenants. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

These families were earlier evicted from a nearby village taken over by Okara Military Cantonment Administration and in order to compensate  the families, they were given several  lots land on contract by the Military as tenant cultivators. Subsequently when the military had wanted to increase the contract price for the land unilaterally, the peasants protested and this led to the start of the present dispute for the land. 

The Anjuman Muzareen Punjab (AMP) is a movement of 1 million landless tenants based in villages stretching over 10 districts of the Punjab (the districts of Okara, Khanewal, Multan, Lahore, Vihari, Sahiwal, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Pakpattan and Sheikhupura etc.). In these Districts landless tenants have settled in these lands and have cultivated them now for over a century. Official records state that the land belongs to the Government of Punjab. However, on these lands several companies and military agencies such as the RVFC, Military Seed Corporation, Livestock Agricultural Department, and Dairy Farm, Seed Research Farm  to name a few are in operation and manage some of the lands in this area. These companies have been collecting revenue from the peasants both in kind and in monetary terrms. According to the Board of Revenue, Government of Punjab the payments from the tenants to these Departments and companies are unlawful since these organizations have no legal claim over ownership nor revenue generated from this land. In July 2000 a new piece-rate and a yearly lease agreement was introduced to these farms. This new system and agreement represented a severe loss in the social and economic position of tenant farmers. In fact, it was widely felt that this new system and agreement was deliberately harsh in order to impoverish the tenants and thereby force them to abandon their lands.

Given this situation the tenants of the area mobilized under the slogan “Maliki Ya Maut” (“Ownership or Death”) and rejected the new system of piece-rate and yearly agreements. The movement was organized under the leadership of the Anjuman Muzareen Punjab (AMP). The movement grew rapidly to gather hundreds of thousands of tenants all over Punjab. During this period the movement attempted to negotiate with the district and provincial administrations, the farm management, the Revenue Board, and even the Governor of Punjab. However, the authorities were unwilling to negotiate and began a campaign of intimidation, coercion and cruelty towards the movement. On several occasions unprovoked violence erupted when the authorities sent armed police and paramilitary Rangers forces to terrorize the tenant farmers. Consequently 11 tenants lost their lives, hundreds including women and children sustained terrible injuries and hardships. Hundreds were arrested and sent to jail. To-date 4 tenant farmers are yet serving sentences in the Central Jail Sahiwal, and claim to stay defiant in their struggle.

The government has also applied severe economic pressure by dismissing over 350 government employees because they were relatives of these tenant farmers. Telephones, electricity and canal water were stopped by the Administration and Rangers for an eight month period. Relatives and children of the tenants were badly beaten by Rangers and Police. 45 tenants (men, women and children) died due to the lack of medical treatment during the siege of these villages by the Rangers and the Police.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The AHRC notes with concern of this unfortunate incident of violence, against ordinary citizens of Pakistan which had taken place while at the same time, both Houses of Parliament on Pakistan have just passed a controversial law, “Pakistan Protection Act”. This law gives unprecedented amount of powers to police and military – powers to detain any person without warrant for as long as two months, search any home neither without the permission of Court nor without a warrant, power to kill and shoot to kill any an order of a grade 15 officer etc. Media reports and analysts say that this incident in Okara is a test of these new powers vested in the police and the military 

In the past, Both Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif had promised to provide these peasant farmers with land that they had been cultivating over 100 years as tenant farmers and both governments of Bhutto and Nawaz have failed to honor the promises so given.

However, the military has always been in the forefront of attacks on innocent people and acted so with absolute impunity from any sort of disciplinary, judicial nor political process. In January 1979, during the military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq, when the workers of Colony Textile mills were demanding a wage increase, the military attacked unarmed workers who were coming out of the factory after completing their night shift, killing 29 workers on the sport and more succumbed to their injuries later in hospital. At this instance military men locked all gates of the Colony and opened fire on the innocent and unarmed workers.

In 1983, in Sekhat, a small city of Sindh province, the military conducted aerial bombing on unarmed citizens who were holding peaceful protest against the military dictatorship, killing more than 50 persons.

In the same year military shot at students who were going on study tour to Moin Jo Daro, a 5000 year old historic place, at Thori Pathak, Jam Shoro, Sindh.

Many other continuous violence and arbitrary actions of the military without impunity can be accessed in the following cases at the respective web links below;

PAKISTAN: Military ignores tribunal’s decision; 
PAKISTAN: Military henchmen kill three farmers and injure 27 others; 
PAKISTAN: Military threatens food security of farmers by illegal land grabbing in Punjab; and 
PAKISTAN: Thousands of peasants to attend a protest rally on December 10, the international day of human rights.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write the letters to the following authorities calling them to arrest the military officers, Lieutenant Colonel Awais, Lieutenant Colonel Shahzad, Lieutenant Colonel Ata Mustafa and Major Nadeem on the charges of murder and attempted murder of the two peasant farmers and for causing injuries to 29 other persons including 14 women. The government of Pakistan must immediately form a high level and high powered Commission consisting of Supreme Court serving judges to conduct an impartial inquiry in these killings and into this incident where armed military men were allowed to attack unarmed peasant farmers who were staging a peaceful protest.  The Pakistan military must be immediately withdrawn from and from around the military farms in the Okara District. Compensation should also be paid to the peasant farmers who were injured in the military attack and to the families of the two farmers who were shot dead by the military as an immediate measure. The cases against the peasants including 28 trade union leaders must be withdrawn immediately. 

The AHRC will write a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions calling for his intervention into this matter.

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