July 13, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 9, 1429

NAWABSHAH, July 12: A large number of people belonging to Pakistan Muslim League-Functional staged a demonstration in Mir Khan Leghari village near Sakrand on Saturday in protest against workers of Pakistan People’s Party accusing them of harassment.

The protesters led by Haji Allah Ditto Khaskheli told journalists that the PPP workers had become their enemies since the killing of a PPP worker Abdul Rasheed Leghari, brother of PPP taluka general secretary Ghulam Shah Leghari, in a clash between PPP and PML workers in their village on Feb 8.

They said that nine out of 12 accused were arrested but three Sardar Khan Mohammed Dahiri, president PML Nawabshah, Imdad Rahu and Abdul Hafeez Unnar were still at large.

They said that PPP office-bearer Ghulam Shah Leghari and others had made it impossible for them to continue living in their native village. The PPP-backed Legharis stopped them from going out for work and even stopped children from going to school, they alleged.

They complained that they could not even take their animals for grazing. PPP workers fired on their houses daily and threatened them to leave the village, they said alleging that their properties were being demolished at gunpoint and police had become a party with them.

The protesters demanded that the higher authorities should take notice of PPP workers’ atrocities and direct police to provide them security. They said that despite being workers of PML-F they had voted for PPP MNA Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah in elections on the directives of Pir Saheb Pagaro.

Later, the protesters asked journalists to accompany with them to the village and see with their won eyes demolition of a shop of their colleague Manzoor Khaskheli by PPP workers.

When a team of journalists and cameramen reached the place, PPP activists led by Manzoor Leghari stopped them from covering the demolition, attacked them and attempted to snatch their cameras.

The journalists informed Sakrand police who reached there to provide them security. Later, when a cameramen Mohammed Ramzan Bhatti and Bashir Ahmed Lakho tried to cover the demolition from inside a police mobile PPP workers attacked it with clubs and axes, forcing them to run for life.

Nawabshah journalists condemned attack on media personnel and Nawabshah Union of Journalist demanded immediate arrest of people involved in the attack.