June 12, 2006	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 15, 1427

SUKKUR, June 11: Activists of Awami Tehrik and Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party on Sunday demanded that the government should take stern action against people responsible for holding jirgas in Sindh.

They said that jirga organisers were giving away innocent girls in marriage to resolve karo-kari disputes.

Addressing the participates of a protest demonstration outside the Thul Press Club, they criticised elected representatives and influential feudal lords for holding jirgas in clear violation of the Sindh High Court’s orders.

Awami Tehrik and STPP leaders Ameer Bux Soomro and Shabbir Akash Qureshi led the protesters.

Hundreds of people took out a procession from the Shah Latif Library and marched on the main roads of the town before reaching the press club. The protesters criticised handing over of women in marriages in rival groups. They said that women were being made to pay for crimes they had not committed.

Meanwhile, following Sindh chief minister’s orders, Thull Taluka Nazim Ghulam Akbar Banglani who presided over a ‘jirga’ has reached Karachi while the ‘Ameens’ and the parties to the dispute were on their way to the provincial metropolis in the company of police officials when this scribe last made contact with them.

The chief minister had summoned taluka nazim and other parties in connection with a jirga presided over by the nazim in Haji Kamal Magsi village.

The parties to the dispute, Hafiz Qamar Din Banglani and Yar Ali Banglani were being taken to CM House in Karachi by the SHO of Dera Sarki police station, Lal Bux Dahar.

When contacted on cellphone SHO Lal Bux Dahar confirmed that Hafiz Qamar Din and Yar Ali were with him, and he was on his way to Karachi. The DPO of Kashmore, Shahab Mazhar Palli, had also left for Karachi.

The chief minister took notice of the jirga when news appeared in media that the jirga had given five innocent girls in marriage to resolve a karo-kari dispute.