The province-wide blockade of the highways continued on Sunday as anti-canal protests in Sindh also witnessed the first shutter down strike in almost all parts of the province.
The National and Indus highways were blocked in Karachi, Jamshoro, Dadu, Shikarpur, Matiari, Khairpur, Larkana and Thatta districts on multiple locations.
The lawyers’ sit-in on Baburlu bypass in Khairpur entered the third day on Sunday, with people from many parts of the province visiting the camp which has been pitched up on the road.
The people from the adjoining area provided meals, water, juices and soft drinks to the protesters. Even a medical camp was set up on Sunday in view of the hot weather.
The legal fraternity claimed that one SUV and two double cabs, which were not carrying number plates, fired gunshots near the camp apparently with the motive to scare the lawyers.
The vehicles immediately escaped and the district’s police still seems clueless about the suspects.
“The same people are involved in firing near the sit-in protest camp who had earlier threatened us,” said advocate Amir Nawaz Warraich, president Karachi Bar Association who is leading the sit-in. According to him, some participants of the protests ran after the vehicles but they escaped.
The vehicles were also captured in a video recording, sowing around 6 am time.
Warraich also showed some spent shells to the media. “We won’t take any fright. We will return either dead or with the notification about cancellation of the canals project.”
Warraich informed that after conclusion of the legal fraternity’s 72 hours deadline, given to the federal government, the lawyers’ executive committee will hold a meeting at around 3 pm on April 21.
“We may either give a call to block the railway tracks or to boycott all the courts in Sindh until the government issued the notification.” Meanwhile, the Sindh Bar Council also announced on Sunday that a day-long boycott of the courts of law in the province will be observed on April 21.
Strike
On the call of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Movement (JSQM) a shutter down strike was observed in all the districts of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Sukkur and Larkana divisions on Sunday.
The JSQM’s chairman Sanan Qureshi thanked the people of the province for supporting the strike. “The strike has proved to be a referendum in Sindh against the canals.”
Meanwhile, the state minister Kheal Das Kohistani while talking to the media in Hyderabad on Sunday said Sindh’s objections against the canals are justified.
He assured that soon the federal government will hold meetings with the provincial government to resolve the issue in an amicable way. He said he does not believe that the workers of Pakistan Peoples Party were involved in throwing eggs and tomatoes on his vehicles in Thatta district the other day.
