MIRPURKHAS, Dec 16: Hundreds of farmers, members of union councils and sugarcane growers on Monday staged a rally here to protest against sugar mills for delaying the start of the crushing season.

The rally was organised by the Sindh Abadgar Board and the Sugarcane Growers Association.

They also staged a protest demonstration outside the local press club.

Growers threatened to set their crop of sugarcane ablaze if the mills delayed the crushing season any further.

Those who spoke on the occasion, included the General Secretary, Sindh Abadgar Board, Imtiaz Panwhar, Syed Hayat Shah Lakhyari, Chaudhry Iftikhar, Syed Irfan Ali Shah, Najma Lashari, Haji Bakhsh Leghari, Maj. (retd) Mirza Masroor Baig, Gohram Baloch, Mansoor Cheema and Haji Akhlaq.

The traffic between Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas remained suspended because of the hour-long demonstration.

Speaking on the occasion, the speakers termed the closure of sugar mills a conspiracy against sugarcane growers and demanded of the government to bind the mills to begin the crushing season.

They expressed the fear regarding destruction of sugarcane crop because of undue delay in harvesting.

The protesters urged the growers to forge unity and launch a Sindh-wide protest campaign against sugar mills.

They condemned owners of sugar mills for keeping their mills closed, saying that the weight of sugarcane had decreased and different pest had attacked the matured crop.

They demanded of the government to cancel the permits of sugar mills which did not begin the crushing season in a week.

Later, the protesters also gathered outside the office of the district Nazim.

They decided to stage a large protest demonstration on Dec 21.