Revenue department team comes under fire

Nambardar, accomplices refuse to pay water dues, rough up officials

THEKRI WALA:

A team of the Revenue Department came under fire during their visit to see a Nambardar to collect water dues from him.

Fortunately, they escaped unhurt, and the bullets only hit their official car.

Nevertheless, they were later subjected to physical violence.

Police have registered a case and arrested an accused.

A complaint was lodged with the police by an official of the department, Mohammad Hassan, saying that he, along with a Patwari, Rizwan, a Naib Qasid, Iqbal, and some other people had gone to see a Nambardar, Shahid Iqbal, in Chak No. 430 GB, to collect water dues.

When they asked him to deposit dues for water, he got angry and asked them to go to the Tehsil Office along with his brother Mujahid and others.

“When we were going to the Tehsil Office with him, Mujahid Iqbal, along with his armed accomplices, opened fire on our vehicle near 424 GB Ada,” said the complainant.

The official said that they fortunately escaped unhurt by their firing, but accused Mujahid Iqbal started hitting him with the pistol butt while his other accomplices beat up the Patwari and the Naib Qasid, and snatched official records, laptops and Rs232,000 of government dues from them.

Meanwhile, the Tehsildar of the area also alerted the police about the incident. The later arrived on the scene, arrested Mujahid and started raids for other accused.

In September last year, at least five people, including a landlord, had allegedly opened fire on the officials of the Punjab Irrigation Department in Chak Jhumra on account of the latter having caught them stealing water from a government-owned channel.

An account of the event narrated to the police by the officials said that their immediate reaction was to find some cover to save their lives, but the landlord’s employees caught them and had them beaten up.

Police had registered a case against the suspects.

A Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of the Irrigation Department, Muhammad Afzal, had told the police that the suspect, Usman Ahsan alias Shani, had been allegedly stealing water by dipping a one-foot pipe into the canal in 124RB Lahoriyan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2022.