Protesting ‘injustice’: Man self immolates in Red Zone

ISLAMABAD: A 48-year-old man tried to immolate himself in front of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat on Wednesday in what appears to be a protest over an allotment of 5.5 acres of land to another person by a patwari in Bahawalpur. The police said Fida Hussain, who hails from Tehsil Ahmedpur Sharqia located in Bahawalpur district, set himself on fire after a revenue official allegedly transferred his five-and-a-half acres of land to someone else through fraudulent means. “It seems the act of self immolation was an attempt to bring the issue in the premier’s notice,” said an official at the Secretariat Police Station. “Hussain has got minor burn injuries,” the official added. Following the incident, the man was rushed to Polyclinic hospital and after treatment was taken to the police station. No case was registered against him till the filing of this report.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2015.