June 14, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 09, 1429

THATTA, June 13: Dozens of villagers took out a procession in Ghorabari on Friday to protest against harassment caused to residents of Koreja Goth and Deh Piraa by an influential landlord.

A complete strike was also observed in the coastal town.

The protesters, raising slogans against landlord Ahmed Khan Mirani, reached Thatta-Garho road where they staged a sit, suspending vehicular traffic for two hours.

The villagers alleged that Mirani, a former officer of a law-enforcing agency who claimed to have good relations with PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, had made their lives miserable.

They alleged that the landlord of Larkana origin wanted to grab their lands and was using different tactics for this purpose. They alleged that with the help of the area police, Mirani had implicated some villagers in fabricated cases.

They alleged that the landlord was creating havoc in their ancestral Koreja village by storming the village with his henchmen and resorting to aerial firing at odd hours.

The villagers of Deh Piraa, Badinpotas by caste, said that the landlord had occupied their 200 acres of fertile land and was now forcing them to vacate the village.

The villagers said that they were old Pakistan People’s Party activists and called on PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari to save them from the atrocities of the landlord.