Deadly scuffle: Trader dies in scuffle over encroachment

WCLA staff was trying to vacate a shop.

LAHORE: A man died on Tuesday during a scuffle between some traders at Shah Alam Market and the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) staff.

Najmul Qutb alias Jaggu bhai had been a vice president of the Shah Alam Market Traders’ Association.

A week earlier, the WCLA had served a notice on Haji Jamshed who runs a shop in Alamgir Market for encroaching on government land. He had been asked to vacate the shop. Jamshed failed to comply. The WCLA then registered an FIR against Jamshed with Mochi Gate police. On Tuesday, a WCLA team went to Jamshed’s shop and directed him to vacate the place. Qutb and several other shopkeepers also gathered at the site.

Talking to The Express Tribune, the duty officer at the Mochi Gate station said that a scuffle had broken out between the WCLA staff and the group of traders. “The WCLA staff insisted on getting the place vacated. The traders, however, wanted them to back off. Qutb lost his balance and fainted after falling to the ground,” he said.

He was taken to a hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. More traders at Shah Alam Market then closed down their shops and started a protest demonstration against the WCLA.

Police said the body had been taken to a morgue for post mortem examination. “The cause of death is not apparent. We have not received a complaint by the family of the deceased so far,” he said.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the incident and sought a report. He said that action would be taken against anyone found responsible for the death.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2015.