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HYDERABAD, May 26: Hundreds of workers of the Faran Sugar Mills, Shaikh Brikhio, and activists of the Sindh National Party staged a protest sit-in at the mill gate against retrenchment of 426 permanent employees of the mill.
A heavy contingent of the police was deployed to control any untoward incident.
Growers and councillors of the area also joined the protest.
The protesters, led by SNP chairman Amir Bhambhro, CBA union general-secretary Abdul Karim Mangwano and Sindh National Labour Federation president Rana Mehmood Ali Khan, had earlier staged a march of about three kilometres to reach the mill.
The workers tried to enter the mill but they were stopped by the police. The police also exchanged hot words with the SNP chairman.
Due to severe heat, three workers — Liaquat Nizamani, Fateh Mohammad Laghari and Mohammad Bachal Shoro — fainted.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Bhambhro said family members of the sacked workers were facing starvation.
He said the labour department had declared the action of the mill management as illegal but it was not prepared to reinstate the retrenched employees.
The SNP chief criticized the police for not taking any action against armed people hired the mill owners.
He urged the management to hold talks with the CBA union to resolve the problem.
Mr Mangwano said the protest would continue till the employees were reinstated.
POLICE: The adviser to the Sindh chief minister on home affairs, Aftab Ahmad Shaikh, has urged the police to improve their behaviour with people and curb criminal activities.
He was talking to senior police officers at his residence here on Sunday.
The adviser said he would hold open kutchehries throughout the province to apprise himself of the law and order situation.
He disclosed that a committee, comprising police officers, would soon be constituted to prepare a welfare package for the police.
DPO A. D. Khwaja briefed Mr Shaikh on working of the police under the new system.
