HYDERABAD: Members of the newly-instituted Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) faced supporters and sympathisers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) who pelted the former’s convoy with stones in Tando Allahyar and Mirpurkhas districts causing injuries to activists from both sides, on Thursday.

Reporters and crew members of digital satellite news gathering (DSNG) vans also suffered injuries while some DSNG vans were damaged.

The PSP’s convoy, led by Mustafa Kamal and including Anis Kaimkhani, Raza Haroon, Anees Ahmed Advocate, Dr Sagheer Ahmed and Iftikhar Alam, reached Hyderabad bypass and were received by supporters before heading for Mirpurkhas.

On reaching Tando Allahyar, they were greeted with pro-MQM slogans by activists gathered at Tando Adam Naka. The convoy carried on in its journey to Mirpurkhas, but found itself facing MQM supporters yet again at Station Chowk in Eidgah area. At this point, supporters from both sides exchanged blows and pelted vehicles with stones.

Journalists, activists from both sides injured in incidents in Tando Allahyar, Mirpurkhas districts

One of Kamal’s supporters in Tando Allahyar, Umer Khayam, was badly beaten. When the leaders reached Mirpurkhas —the home town of MQM dissident Anis Ahmed advocate — their vehicles were pelted with stones at Post Office Chowk, Kalay Khan Pump, Mahar cinema and Hameedpura Colony.

The windowpanes of Mustafa Kamal’s vehicle were smashed while DSNGs of two television channels were also hit.

A DSNG driver and two reporters, identified as Sarfaraz Kaimkhani and Zahid Ghaffar, were injured due to the pelting of stones. At all these places, charged MQM supporters, including women, raised their shoes at the PSP convoy and shouted anti-Kamal slogans.

They carried pictures of MQM leader Altaf Hussain.

This is the first visit of Kamal and his associates to Mirpurkhas since they quit the MQM and formed their own party. Last Friday, they visited Hyderabad where similar scenes were witnessed in Latifabad as supporters of both sides shouted slogans in favour of their leaders.

The PSP leaders were scheduled to address a press conference later in the night. Addressing his supporters at Hameedpura Colony, Mirpurkhas, Kamal shrugged away the attitude of the MQM supporters, saying they would understand “realities” soon. “It has, after all, taken me and my associates 30 years to make up our minds.”

The PSP leaders are scheduled to visit Hyderabad again on Friday (today). The party has set up its first office in a residential area of Latifabad unit-6.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2016