SUKKUR, Sept 2: Anti-Greater Thal Canal Action Committee leaders have criticized the Sindh chief minister and ministers and state minister Khalid Lund for supporting the construction of the Kalabagh dam and the Thal canal.

The action committee leaders were speaking at a big public meeting at the Teer Chowk after the anti-Thal caravan reached here on Monday night.

Earlier, they also spoke at public gatherings in Daharki, Pano Akil and Rohri.

Speaking at the Sukkur gathering, action committee convener and Sindh People’s Party Parliamentarians president Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Dr Qadir Magsi and others said it was not the end of the protest but the beginning of the struggle against construction of the projects.

They said they would launch a 1983 MRD-like movement if the projects were not abandoned.

Mr Shah said the capacity of the Thal canal was first extended from 6,000 cusecs to 10,000 and now the government was planning to extend it up to 20,000 cusecs.

He said the Thal canal and the Kalabagh dam could only be constructed over the bodies of the people of Sindh.

Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi said the government was spending Rs60 billion on the Thal canal and Rs600 billion would be spent on the Kalabagh dam.

Awami Tehrik chairman Rasool Bux Palejo said the decision of the British era was on the record that Sindh had 90 per cent right over the Indus waters.

PPP leader Khuhro said 74 persons, including technocrats, intellectuals and journalists, were invited by the president to express their viewpoint on water-related issues and construction of the water projects but only five of them were allowed to speak.

Others who spoke on the occasion included Ayub Shar, Afzal Gujjar, Azam Jehangir, Nasrullah Baloch and Anwar Ali Mahar.