BAHAWALNAGAR: A case has been registered against 39 people, including some grain market brokers, forallegedphysicaltorture of a food department team formed by the Punjab government to check hoarding in Minchinabad.
Traders at Minchinabad’s grain market, on the other hand, termed the case fabricated and went on shutterdown strike, demanding the FIR be quashed. They also demanded the food department stop its ‘action against farmers’ immediately.
The FIR registered by Minchinabad police says that as part of the Punjab govern-ment’s wheat procurement campaign, and to combat hoarding, a team comprising officials of food department and Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (Pera) force confiscated 1,000 wheat sacks allegedly hoarded by one Muhammad Khan at his home on McLeod Ganj Road, in a raid.
Meanwhile, the FIR says, allegedly at the behest of Khan, several men and women, carrying clubs and sticks, arrived at the scene and attacked the officials.
The attackers also forcefully unloaded the confiscated wheat sacks from a truck.
The FIR adds that the attackers then locked the team members in a house, slapping the officials andthreatening them with serious repercussions.
Although the FIR is being termed baseless by the traders, a video surfacing on social media shows several people, including women, surrounding a Food Inspector, Qamar Zaman, and slapping him in the face.
On the other hand, grain market traders accused food department officials of massive corruption, claiming that in the name of the campaign against hoarding, they and Pera force officials are harassing farmers and extracting bribes.
They warned that if such practices were not stopped, the grain market trader would go on strike indefinitely.