Land dispute: Former minister, his men accused in hospital raid

Jatoi denies his men started violence, says plot is his property.

MUZAFFARGARH: Three doctors and two paramedics were injured at Jatoi tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital allegedly in a raid by a former minister and his men over resistance to their attempt to illegal occupy land adjacent to the hospital.

An FIR registered by Jatoi police says that more than 70 men, led by former PPP minister Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, tried to demolish the boundary wall around the plot late Saturday night. It said the men attacked some doctors who reached the scene and asked for an explanation.

Jatoi DSP Khalid Daha told The Express Tribune that two men had been arrested for questioning. He refused to identify the men.

In his statement to the media, Jatoi rejected the suggestion that his men had started a quarrel and accused the provincial government of orchestrating the clash to rob the PPP of the support people had shown for it at a public rally led by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani in Alipur earlier on Saturday. Jatoi said that the plot was his property according to Revenue Department record. He said his men were forcibly stopped from taking possession of the plot.

“The FIR has been registered at the behest of the provincial government,” he said.

Complainant Dr Saleem Leghari, a medical officer at the THQ hospital, rejected Jatoi’s explanation. He said the plot was part of the land Jatoi’s grandfather had donated to the government in 1963. The plot was allotted to the hospital when it was upgraded from a rural health centre, he added.

Leghari said the attackers had demolished part of a boundary wall the hospital administration had erected around the plot.

He said the police were slow to respond. Also, he said, some of the attackers who were still there when the police arrived were allowed to escape.

DDO (Health) Dr Sami Ullah, one of the three doctors injured, said he had tried to convince Jatoi that his action was illegal after the land had been allotted to the hospital.

The FIR mentions Sections 324/337A2, 186/354, 427 and 148/149 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The injured doctors and paramedics have been recommended bed rest for three months. Doctors who treated them at the THQ hospital said they had suffered fractures and bruises.

Dr Kashif Chisti, Pakistan Medical Association south Punjab general secretary, warned that the PMA would announce a strike and boycott work in Muzaffargarh if provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act were not added to the FIR.

Muzaffargarh District Police Officer Rao Munir Zia said it was too early to say if the section was needed or not. He said it would be added if the findings of an initial investigation indicated so.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2012.