Three police, Levis cops, resident injured in clash

F.P. Report
LOWER DIR: Three police o icials and Dir Levis constables were injured when the residents of Shatai Dara in the jurisdiction of Balambat police station resorted to stoning the district administration officials and police party that had visited the village to complete the partition of the disputed land between the Malakanan Ghara and residents of Shatai Dara here on Wednesday, residents and police said.
One of the Shatai Dara residents was also injured when police and Levis official baton charged the residents and fired tear gas shells. The injured were shifted to the district headquarter hospital Timergara while police arrested eight elders of the Shatai Dara for stoning and resisting the police party.
An official of the Balambat police station told local journalists that the residents of Shatai Dara started stoning and blocked the police by burning tyres when dozens of the police and Dir Levis led by the district administration officers reached the limits of Shatai Dara for partition of lands according to court decision. As a result three police and Dir Levis officials including Alaud Din, Farmanullah and Gulab Zada were injured.
The police party fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters and baton charged them in which a youth identified as Abdul Aziz was injured who was referred to Peshawar due to his critical condition. The other injured persons were shifted to the DHQ hospital Timergara. Meanwhile the Balambat police arrested eight residents of Shatai Dara including Hayatullah, Nowsher Khan, Tariqullah, Ubaidur Rehman, Rahat Gul, Inamullah, Samiullah and Sadiqur Rehman.
The hundreds acres of the Shatai Dara land dispute between the Malikanan of Ghara and residents of Shatai had been in the courts for several decades.
The dispute so far has claimed several precious lives in the past.
Speaking at an emergency meeting soon after the incident, the elders of Malikanan including Malik Jehan Alam, Malik Farooq Iqbal, Malik Aslam Pervez and others claimed that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had decided the dispute in their favour. They said the court had declared the Malikanan as the owners of the uncultivable lands while the residents of Shatai Dara had been declared the owners of only cultivable lands.
They said the district administration was implementing the court order under Land revenue act, 1967 section 135 on Wednesday when handful elements in the residents created hurdles for police party and hurled stones on it. They said that their rivals had challenged the government writ in sheer violation of the constitution and law.
Also in the day the political parties in this regard expedited their efforts to settle the dispute peacefully. The Lower Dir deputy commissioner Muhammad Zubair Khan Niazi on Tuesday imposed section 144 crpc on construction work, excavation and changing the structure of un-culturable waste land at Shatai Dara in order to avert any untoward incident during the land partition process. In his official letter circulated here the DC said that in the light of the order of August Supreme Court of Pakistan dated Feb 7, 2013, demarcation between the culturable land (owned by tenants) and un-culturable waste land (owned by landlords) has been made by the Revenue field staff of the district.
It said the administration had the information that the tenants of Shatai Dara were busy in excavation in the limits of un-culturable land. The circular said that in order to avoid any untoward incident which was likely to result in serious breach of peace and creating law and order situation in the area, it was imperative to impose ban under section 144 Crpc.