HYDERABAD: Over 100 members of the civil society and activists of NGOs staged a symbolic protest march from the press club to the radio station here on Saturday to express solidarity with a peasant whose nine family members are being held in captivity for the last seven years.

The peasant, Manoo Bheel, himself has completed 1,000 days of token hunger strike outside the Hyderabad press club.

The protest demonstration was organized by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

HRCP Special Task Force coordinator Nasreen Shakeel Pathan and MPAs participated in the rally.

Speaking on the occasion, Nasreen Shakeel Pathan and others said the poor hari had been on hunger strike for the last 1,000 days in protest against the kidnapping of his nine family members but all his appeals to authorities for recovery of his parents and children have fallen on deaf ears.

They said right from the local authorities to the Sindh governor and had assured Mr Bheel for the recovery of his family members but no action had been taken against his tormentor simply because he was a powerful feudal lord.

MPAs Farheen Mughal and Rehman Rajput said that they have even raised the issue of Manoo Bheel in the Sindh Assembly but it was simply a wishful thinking to expect any justice from the government.

Manoo Bheel said a powerful landlord of the Sanghar district was holding his family in wrongful confinement for the last seven years but the authorities have taken no action against him.

It may be recalled that nine family members of Manoo Bheel including his parents, wife, two sons and two daughters, a brother and another relative were allegedly kidnapped by a powerful zamindar of Sanghar district on May 2, 1998, from Goth Waryam Memon, Digri taluka, Mirpurkhas district.

Thereafter, the HRCP and Manoo Bheel approached the officers concerned right from the DPO to IG Sindh and from the Sindh chief Minister to the Sindh governor but the family of Mr Bheel is still languishing somewhere in the captivity of the feudal lord.