HYDERABAD: Food, water and fuel shortages hit the entire Sindh province on Friday owing to severe disruption in supplies cau­s­ed by religious activists’ sit-ins on many roads of almost all cities and towns on the third consecutive day of protest against the recent Sup­reme Court verdict that over­turned the death sentence awarded to Aasia Bibi.

Big and small groups of activists and supporters of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Ittehad Ahle Sunnat (IAS), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan-Noorani (JUP-N), Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST) proscribed Ahle Sun­nat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) and many less-known and previously unknown entities took out rallies in different cities and towns to express their support to the call for a review of the SC verdict.

In Hyderabad, the biggest group of protesters continued the sit-in at Hyder Chowk amid a complete shut­down across the city on Friday. The group was led by TLP’s Sahibzada Noorul Hassan Jilani, Khalid Has­san Attari of PST and Qari Ahmed Ali Saeedi of IAS.

Taj Mohammad Nahiyoon of JUI-F, Syed Asim Shah of ASWJ and Dr Younus Dan­ish of JUP-N led their resp­ec­tive rallies that ended outside the local press club. Strong contingents of police and Rangers remained deplo­yed at sensitive places to ward off any untoward incident but did not intervene in the protest.

JI’s Tahir Majeed and Milli Muslim League’s Fai­sal Nadeem also led separate rallies taken out from Station Road and Markaz Saad Bin Maaz, respectively.

In Sukkur, Jacobabad, Gho­tki and Kandhkot-Kash­more districts, the religious parties and groups organised protest rallies and sit-ins in district headquarters and many other cities and towns. Activists of Hussaini Jamaat, Jamatus Sualeheen and Qadri Tehreek also took part in the protest.

In Larkana, component parties of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal took out a rally from Madressah Isha’atul Quran. It ended at the main gate of Jinnah­bagh, where the participants held a sit-in.

Protest rallies and sit-ins were also held in almost all shutdown-hit towns of Dadu, Jamshoro, Shaheed Bena­zirabad, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar and Badin districts.

Leaders of the participating parties and groups led their respective rallies and vowed to continue the protest till the demand was met. There were no signs of an end to the life-crippling protest until the electronic media aired the news, at about 9.30pm, about an agreement, between the federal government and top leaders of the campaign.

The protesters holding sit-ins at countless places, however, kept waiting for directives from their top leadership in Rawalpindi/Islam­abad whether to end the protest.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2018