30 booked after attack on officials, police.

SUKKUR -- Thirty farmers were booked on Tuesday for attacking a team of district and revenue officials, led by Assistant CommAissioner of Mirpur Mathelo Sheharyar Qamar, that had tried to implement a ban on cultivation of paddy crop in Qalati Gabol village near Khanpur Mahar a day earlier.

The case was registered against 10 nominated and 20 unknown attackers on the complaint of a revenue official at Khanpur Mahar police station.

Protesting against registration of the case, farmers from many villages - including Qalati Gabol, Paryo Khan Gabol, Nari Gadani and Banhoon Gadani - led by landlords Nazeer Ahmed Gabol, Fauji Malik, Mohammad Nawaz Gadani and others held protest demonstration and sit-in to demand withdrawal of charges. They raised slogans against the district administration and blocked the nearby road.

Speaking to local reporters, they argued that the AC-led team's action was resisted on the grounds that it was not even-handed. They said AC Sheharyar was taking action against only small growers in his campaign against violation of the ban while turning a blind eye to the same offence being committed by certain influential landlords of the area. They said paddy was being cultivated in Qalati Gabol village by poor peasant families on a negligible scale but the AC was bent upon taking action against

them while influential landlords of the same area were cultivating paddy on a large scale with impunity.

They said when...