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DADU, Aug 26: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has ordered the Dadu DCO to reinvestigate the matter of contaminated water of the Manchhar Lake.
A special team, constituted under the chairmanship of DCO Alamuddin Bullo for the purpose, is scheduled to visit different parts of the lake, take water samples and submit its report to the chief minister.
The DCO told journalists here on Thursday that thousands of fishermen of the lake were using this water. He claimed that the water was not dangerous for human life as laboratory tests had found it fit for consumption.
He said the team would again collect water samples from the lake and it would be decided after tests of the samples whether to release the lake water into the River Indus or not.
He claimed that at present, Manchhar water was not contaminated and the level of the lake was eight to nine feet. However, Jhangara Union Council Nazim said water of the lake was contaminated and government officials were falsely claiming that it was not polluted.
Ali Hassan Mallah, Anwar Mallah, Nawab Mallah and other fishermen of Manchhar and the Main Nara Valley Drain said a large number of fishermen were infected with gastroenteritis, tuberculosis and hepatitis-B due to consumption of poisonous water of the lake.
District Nazim Malik Asad Sikandar said if Manchhar water was found contaminated, he would oppose its release into the Indus as it would endanger lives of people of Hyderabad and Dadu districts.
JSQM: Jeay Sindh Students Federation provincial president Faqir Sudheer Tunio and general-secretary Anwar Nabi Halepoto have accused the Sindh government of launching an operation against the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and the JSSF.
Talking to journalists at the press club here on Thursday, they said police were raiding houses of party leaders and activists to arrest them in what they called fake cases, including those of bomb blasts.
They alleged that police and law-enforcement agencies were torturing arrested JSQM and JSSF activists to change their loyalties. They demanded that the government should ensure arrest of killers of JSQM leaders Sarwar Lund, Liaquat Marfani and Gul Mohammad Bhatti. Later, they observed a token hunger strike outside the press club against the delay in arrest of killers of party activists.
