SUKKUR, May 20: The Mirpur Mathelo police registered two cases against 200 people, including three union council Nazims of Ghotki district, on the charges of disturbing the peace of Mirpur Mathelo and ransacking the office of the district Nazim, Ghotki, Ali Gohar Khan Mahar, who’s the elder brother of Sindh Chief Minister Sardar Ali Mohammed Mahar, on Monday evening.

They were also booked on the charges of blocking the National Highway, burning tyres and trying to create hurdles in the smooth moving of traffic on the National Highway.

The first case was registered on the orders of the EDO (Revenue) under section 143, 147, 337, 353, 427, 504, and 506 PPC. The second was registered by a sub-inspector, Aftab Farooqi, under section 147, 148, 149 and 341 PPC.

The Nazims and the people who blocked the National Highway and ransacked the office belonged to the group of Federal State Minister Khalid Khan Lund and Provincial Minister Nadir Akmal Leghari.

According to the police, they barged into the office of the district Nazim and ransacked his office. They were protesting against the district Nazim on the plea that the canals and Wahs passing through the land of the Mahar group were full of water, while the canals passing through the lands of the Lund group were without water and the irrigation officials were not ready to supply water to the newly-constructed Desert Canal.

There is an acute shortage of water in the Mahi Wah, Masoo Wah and Dahar Wah and the irrigation authorities were supplying water to the canals on political grounds.

On Tuesday morning, about 150 people assembled near the Nisar Lund Petrol Pump to hold a protest demonstration against the police who registered cases against innocent people on political grounds. However, the police soon dispersed them.

The DPO, Ghotki, claimed that cases had been registered on merit and not on political grounds.

He claimed that the irrigation authorities had promised the people of the area that water would be provided in the Desert Canal in April but the Pakistan Railways, which was busy in constructing a bridge on the canal, asked the irrigation authorities not to supply water till the bridge had been fully constructed, otherwise its work would be hampered.

The DCO, Ghotki, asked the protesters to disperse peacefully with the assurance that water would be provided to the Desert Canal during the first week of June as the Pakistan Railways had assured him that their work would have been completed by then.