DADU: Twenty protesters were injured when police baton-charg­ed a large number of Sehwan Develop­ment Authority (SDA) employees holding a demonstration at the Jam­shoro toll plaza by blocking both sides of the M-9 Motorway for about four hours on Tuesday.

Long queues of vehicles rem­ain­ed stranded along the intercity route during the course of the demonstration. The protesters were dem­an­ding release of their salaries which, according to them, had not been paid for 40 months.

According to the police, the protesters carrying banners and placards inscribed with their demands assembled at the toll plaza raising slogans. They put up barricades and burnt tyres across the road to block movement of vehicular traffic.

‘We have not been paid salaries for 40 months,’ say protesters’ leaders

Jamshoro SSP Tauqir Moham­mad Naeem said he along with a police team proceeded to the spot and held negotiations with leaders of the protesting employees. They were asked to clear the road and give way to the vehicular traffic stranded along it for several hours.

He said the protesters did not heed the request and some of them hurled stones at vehicles smashing glasses of a few of them.

The SSP said that protesters’ leaders refused to disperse until their demands were accepted.

He said police applied baton-charge to disperse them after taking their nine leaders, including one woman, into custody.

They were sent to the lockup of the Jamshoro police station.

The police officer said that an investigation into the matter was started.

An FIR was registered on the complaint of ASI Ghulam Hussain Kaboro on behalf of the state against nine nominated and 41 other protesters for blocking road, rioting, creating a law and order situation and damaging private property.

The nominated protesters were Abdul Waheed Jakhro, Haq Nawaz Siyal, Nasrullah Tha­heem, Azmatullah Gopang, Sho­aib Junejo, Zahid Suhag, Ali Ak­bar Deepar, Jalil Brohi and Rafia Panhwar.

Earlier, speaking to the media the detained leaders said that SDA had been facing a serious financial crisis for more than three years due to corruption and mismanagement on the part of inept officials appointed on political grounds.

They said SDA employees were facing immense hardship due to non-payment of their salaries for 40 months. “We are facing starvation; we are unable to afford proper medical treatment of our families; our children are not going to schools; we are living a miserable life due to the situation,” they said.

The leaders said that no heed was being paid by the authorities concerned to our distress calls.

Therefore, we observed a strike on Tuesday and held the demonstration to draw the attention of the higher authorities to our grievances, they added.

They demanded immediate release of their salaries and dues. They also demanded posting of “honest and competent” director general, directors and other senior officials to run the institution efficiently and overcome its financial crisis.

They said the protest would continue until their demands were met.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2019