Karachi: Following a round of bloody clashes between two tribal communities in Sindh, the National Highway, connecting the province to others, was blocked at an area of Nawabshah district for around 48 hours due to the protest by the members of the victim tribe.
The people of the Bhand community have been protesting at Nawab Wali Mohammad Town of Nawabshah along with the dead bodies of five tribesmen since Saturday (February 12) evening. The five members of the tribe and a police official lost their lives following a tribal clash between Bhand and a rival clan over a dispute related to the agricultural land.
The Sindh United Party (SUP), whose leader Syed Zain Shah has been participating in the protest sit-in in Nawabshah, called for doing protests all over the province on Monday to show solidarity with the victimised tribe.
One such protest was held outside Karachi Press Club while Opposition legislators in Sindh Assembly also agitated during its proceedings that resulting in abrupt adjournment of the session.
Peaceful strike
The SUP has also given an appeal for observing a peaceful strike in Sindh on Tuesday against the killing of tribesmen and the failure of the Sindh government to ensure justice to the bereaved community members.
The protesting Bhand community has been demanding that the influential persons belonging to the rival tribe who were involved in the violent incident and land dispute should be mentioned in the criminal case to be lodged by the police following the killing of the tribesmen.
They have also been demanding that the Senior Superintendent of Police posted in the district should be sacked for his failure to prevent violence and criminal attempt to unduly occupy the farmland. The protesting tribe also demanded that their farmland under “occupation” should be given back to the victims and that the sit-in will continue until all these demands are met by the government.
Leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Shaikh, who belongs to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, also reached the site of sit-in from Karachi on the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan to show solidarity with the aggrieved tribesmen.
The Opposition Leader threatened to block the rest of the highways in Sindh to step up the protest drive so as to pressurise the provincial government to serve justice in the case.
