July 21, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1424

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JACOBABAD/SUKKUR, July 20: The Thul town with its several government buildings was inundated after a 100-foot-wide breach developed in the Ali Mir Wah near Moosa Allahabad village on Saturday.

Residents of Thul were trying to drain out and divert the flow of water as the gushing water inundated the hospital, sub-jail, offices of Mukhtiarkar and civil judge, telephone exchange, Baloch Colony, Hindu Mohalla, Soomra Mohalla and other areas.

Telephone connections went out of order as knee-deep water was standing in the exchange.

Offices also remained closed on Saturday as the whole area was inundated with water.

Thousands of the people have shifted to safer areas in Jacobabad, Kandhkot and Kashmor towns.

The breach was plugged on Sunday when the Jacobabad district government provided six pumping machines and other material to drain out floodwater in the Thul town.

Thousands of residents of the Thul town held a demonstration to protest against Jacobabad district authorities for not draining out floodwater in the area.

The protestors demanded compensation for their loses.

They blamed Taluka Nazim Ghaus Bux Sarki for the Ali Mir Wah breach as he was digging a watercourse at the canal to cultivate his lands.

Meanwhile, reports from Ghotki said 15 villages were submerged when a 400-foot-wide breach developed in the Qadirpur loop bund.

The floodwater also damaged crops standing over 300 acres of land.

The inundated villages included Nihal Chachar, Bharo Shaikh, Khairi Chachar, Janib, Latif Chachar, Ismail Chachar, Luqman and Abdul Hakeem.

Several cattlehead were also taken away by water.

A breach also developed in the Noor Wah in Jacobabad which was widened due to water pressure.

A Sindh government official is supervising the situation and heavy machinery sandbags and stones have been sent at vulnerable points of canal embankments.

Villagers, according to whom thousands of acres of land and about 500 houses were affected, have demanded that the government should declare the area as calamity-hit and compensate them for their losses.