MIRPURKHAS, Jan 6: All 27 sugar mills in Sindh stopped crushing on Thursday following registration of cases against the owner and some officials of a sugar mill.

The cases were registered on Thursday against the mill officials for allowing police and private guards, posted at the gate of the Al Abbas Sugar Mill, to baton-charge and tear-gas protesting growers.

The farmers, under the banner of the Sindh Sugar Cane Growers Association, protested outside the sugar mill on Thursday after the mill’s management refused to purchase cane at the government-announced rate of Rs60 per maund and for not ending the zone system.

The mill’s management approached the Mirpurkhas DCO in writing to ensure registration of FIRs against the protestors, including MNA Qurban Ali Shah, Javed Junejo and A.D. Lakho.

Later, A.D. Lakho, nazim of the Doulatpur UC, lodged a case with the Digri police against Shunaid Qureshi, owner of the mill, general manager Ghulam Mohammad Soomro, manager Akbar and some other employees.

In an emergency meeting on Thursday, the Pakistan

Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) urged all sugar mills in the province to close down their units until the resolution of the crisis.

Meanwhile, president of the Sindh Sugar Cane Growers Association (SSCGA), Qurban Ali Shah, and other office-bearers were formulating a strategy to tackle the situation.

The SSCGA sent telegrams to the Sindh chief secretary, Sindh IGP, Hyderabad RPO, Mirpurkhas district nazim and Mirpurkhas DCO to intervene in the situation and said sugar can crop grown over hundreds of acres would be destroyed if no action was taken.