DADU: Six people suffered injuries when activists of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Sindh Action Committee (SAC) clashed with each other at Zero Point near Nawabshah on Sunday.

The clash broke out at a welcome camp PPP activists had established to greet party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari when SAC workers passed by it to take part in a planned protest in Dur town. Bilawal was scheduled to inaugurate an overhead bridge at Zero Point and visit Dur town.

Bothe the sides used clubs and stones and also opened fire at each other during the standoff. The injured were admitted to a local hospital while Bilawal cancelled opening ceremony of the bridge following the incident.

According to Nawabshah DIG Irfan Baloch, police parties reached the scene of the clash and brought the situation under control. More policemen had been deployed and patrolling had been intensified in the area, according to SSP.

Speaking to this reporter, SAC convener and Sindh United Party (SUP) chairman Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah demanded the Sindh High Court chief justice and Sindh IGP conduct an inquiry into the incident.

He said that a peaceful rally of the Sindh Action Committee was on its way to Dur town, when it reached Zero Point, PPP activists attacked its participants.

He said that police remained silent and did not interfere to protect the SAC activists. Despite the ugly incident, the committee would continue its protest rallies in Sindh according to schedule, he vowed.

SAC spokesman Makhdoom Shams said that six activists of the committee were injured in the clash. Zain Bhutto and Mohisin Mallah suffered serious injuries from strikes of clubs and they were under treatment at a local hospital, he added

The SAC activists continued their protest rally towards Dur town.

HYDERABAD: Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has condemned what he termed ‘uncalled for’ firing and attack on the peaceful convoy of SAC workers in Nawabshah.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, he said the SAC was running its mobilisation campaign against the settlement of outsiders and illegal occupation of land in Sindh but it appeared the PPP government did not like this drive.

He alleged that PPP workers had pelted the peaceful convoy with stones and also resorted to firing on it at the behest of party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. The incident had exposed false claims of democratic spirit of the PPP, he observed.

He said the PPP could neither be able to intimidate workers nor stop the SAC from launching its campaign. The failed attempts were aimed at coercing people and keeping them away from Sindh’s nationalist politics, he said.

Dr Magsi said the SAC would continue its struggle and defeat corrupt rulers.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2021