Several farmer leaders were arrested after they tried to organize against illegal land grabs in the Hashtnagar region in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province earlier this week.

Salar Amjad Ali, Momin Khan Shalmani, Waris Khan Amir, Muhammad Alam, Manzoor Khan, Sparlay Ghorzang, and Zeeshan were arrested after their bails in previous cases were revoked. All the arrested are part of the provincial leadership of the left-wing Mazdoor Kisan Party (Workers-Peasants Party, MKP).

The MKP issued a statement on Monday, July 28, condemning the arrest of its leaders and activists. It called the state’s action “brutal and tyrannical” and demanded the immediate release of all those who were arrested.

Under the leadership of the MKP, the farmers have been fighting for decades against illegal land grabs in the province by the big landlords, carried out under the protection of local authorities.

The farmers are demanding rights over the land they have been cultivating for generations.

The arrest of the leaders, the MKP claims, is related to the authorities’ attempts to suppress the movement against the illegal land grab in the region.

“These arrests are a clear attempt to protect powerful elements seeking to seize land from local farmers. This land belongs to the farmers who cultivated it, not to feudal lords or state-sponsored land mafia,” the MKP asserted in the statement, proclaiming that the arrests will not deter the progress of the movement.

The MKP demanded that the state stop supporting the land mafia in the region and immediately release all the leaders and activists arrested. It also demanded that all the false and fabricated cases filed against its leadership be withdrawn.

The party warned the authorities in KP that if the demands were not met and all the arrested leaders were not released immediately it would intensify the movement.

The post Farmer leaders arrested in Pakistan for opposing illegal land grab appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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