July 24, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1429

HYDERABAD, July 23: The Sindh United Party has given a call for shutter-down strike in Jamshoro district on Thursday (today) to protest against alleged police excesses against SUP workers and supporters in the district.

In a statement faxed to Dawn on Wednesday, a spokesman for the party, Khawja Naveed Amin, alleged that torture and other forms of persecution of SUP workers and supporters in the district at the hands of district police and at the behest of the government had become order of the day.

Police had created a state within a state but their atrocities against innocent people would not be tolerated as police were servants, not masters of people, Khawja said.

He said the police and other law enforcement agencies whose duty was to protect the life and property of people, had instead become the biggest threat to them, he said.

Police officers were more afraid of tribal chieftains than their own senior officers, he claimed.