HYDERABAD, Oct 9: Alam Shoro, a councillor from Allah Bachayo Shoro union council and his son were released on Friday night by their kidnappers.

Alam Shoro told Dawn that he belonged to the Malik Asad Sikandar group and was kidnapped before the local body elections so that he could not cast his vote.

He said he along with his son was tortured in the captivity.

Malik Asad Sikandar said his political opponents had crossed all limits of cheating during the polls.

SEMINAR: The additional secretary-general of the All-Pakistan Federation of Trade Unions, Mr Osama Tariq, has expressed concern over child labour.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘protection of children’ at the labour hall here on Saturday, he said it was due to poverty that people were sending their children to work.

He urged the working class to struggle against elimination of child labour.

He said in civilized societies proper attention was paid to the education and health of children.

He said 3.3million children between the age of five and fourteen were working as labourers in the country in 1996.

He said a law should be passed where manufacturers of pesticides, explosives and petroleum would not be allowed to hire children.

Mr Tariq said no child should be allowed to work in transport companies, hotels and in manufacturing units of leather, carpet and bangles.

The provincial secretary of the Pakistan Wapda Hydro-Electric Central Labour Union, Iqbal Qaimkhani, Mir Khan Baloch, Malik Sultan Ali and Azam Khan also spoke on the occasion.

JSQM: Activists of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz staged a protest demonstration and observed a token hunger strike outside the press club on Sunday in protest against arrest of party vice-chairman, Dr Niaz Kalani.

Speaking on the occasion, Dhani Bux Abro and Mushtaq Umrani said the Sindh government had launched an operation against the nationalists at the behest of Punjab.

Condemning the arrest of Dr Kalani, Qurban Khuhawar, Shaukat and Athar Soomro, they claimed that the central leaders of their party were innocent.

They warned that the party would stage series of demonstrations in Sindh if the operation was not stopped.

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