KARACHI, June 1: Police resorted to baton-charge and used teargas shells to disperse people who had staged a protest demonstration against the Nazims of a union council and Keamari Town on the Hawksbay Road on Sunday.

Agitating people lit bonfire, blocking the road for over two hours for vehicular traffic and damaged a police mobile besides other vehicles. They also attempted to attack Mauripur police station but the police resorted to baton-charge and teargas shelling to disperse them.

Construction of a boundary wall adjacent to a local graveyard in Budri Goth in Hawksbay by Nazim of union council-6 Allah Bux Baloch triggered the protest. The area residents objected to the construction of the boundary wall encircling a vast portion of a vacant land.

The UC Nazim started building the wall late Saturday night, police and area people said.

When the area people found out in the morning that the wall was being built, they gathered at the Hawksbay Road where they pelted the moving vehicles with stones and chanted slogans against the Nazims of UC-6 and Keamari town. They also lit bonfire and blocked the movement of vehicles around 11am, the residents said.

The police reached the spot and inquired about the reason of protest. The Keamari town Nazim, Zulfiqar Yunus, also arrived at the spot and inspected the site.

According to the UC-6 Nazim, the government had allotted him 27 acres along the graveyard where he intended to raise a boundary wall.

The police asked the people to abandon their protest and assured them that an inquiry would be conducted into the matter but the angry people refused to disperse and started pelting the police with stones. They also moved toward Mauripur police station to attack when the police baton-charged them and also lobbed teargas shells.

During the melee the windscreen of a police mobile was shattered. The unruly crowd dispersed after the police action and the road was opened for traffic after three hours at around 2pm.

Keamari town police officer Athar Rasheed Butt told Dawn that the Keamari town Nazim informed the police that he did not have information about the allotment of the land to the UC-6 Nazim.

He said a case for creating law and order situation had been registered with the police but no arrest had so far been made in that respect.

A large number of picnickers faced severe hardships as they had no option but to wait to reach their destination. A number of families opted to return home by abandoning their plan to go on a picnic.