OKARA: Workers of the PML-N and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) late on Thursday filed separate applications against each other at Chuchak police station following a scuffle between them.

Those mentioned in the applications included PTI candidates Samsam Ali Bukhari, Mahr Javed Iqbal and 10 others as well as PML-N candidate Chaudhry Javed Allauddin, Usman Ghani, Zahoor Ahmed Shaheen and others.

PTI candidate for NA-141, Samsam Bukhari, at a press conference on Thursday night at the farmhouse of another party candidate Chaudhry Muhammad Abdullah Tahir claimed that on Thursday afternoon PML-N workers Shaheen, Ghani along with others overpowered PTI workers Hafiz Jabbar, Muhammad Saeed, Aamir Mumtaz and Irfan Bhatti in village 4G-D and forced them to leave the area.

On refusal, Bukhari claimed, the PML-N workers tied hands of the PTI men and allegedly detained them in an outhouse. When supporters in the village found out about the incident, a large number of them gathered at the spot, while, the party leader added, he also rushed there.

Later, hundreds of supporters of both parties gathered at the spot along with a heavy police contingent after which the detained workers were released. One of those allegedly detained, Saeed, submitted an application at Chuchak police station for registration of a case. Bukhari demanded police take legal action against the miscreants. Police took the released workers to Satghara police station to avoid further trouble.

On the other hand, PML-N worker Usman Ghani of village 4G-D also submitted an application for registration of a case, pleading that he was being threatened over the phone by callers claiming to be senior officials of a sensitive agency and demanding he support PTI candidates instead of those backed by his own party. He offered to meet the callers out of fear when it was revealed that they were in fact PTI workers. This resulted in a scuffle between the two sides.

He further claimed that the allegedly detained workers along with their fellows Anwar Pasha, Shaheen Bashir, Saleem Bashir, Noora Bodla and candidates Samsam, Mahr Javed and his brother Mahr Iqbal had threatened him of dire consequences if he along with his associates did not support the PTI candidates.

Till the filing of this report, elders of the area were trying to reconcile the two sides to avoid tension among the candidates, voters and supporters of both parties.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2018