HYDERABAD, Dec 8: Activists of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz marched from Rani Bagh to the press club here on Thursday in protest against arrest of party leaders and construction of Kalabagh dam, Thal canal and other water projects on the Indus.

The protesters included women and children.

Speaking on the occasion, Saima Bhutto, Shahnawaz Bhutto, Sohail Hakro and others alleged that JSMM leaders Muzaffar Bhutto, Abdus Sattar, Hakro, Ahmad Khan Teeno and Zulfiqar Khaskheli had been detained illegally by law-enforcement agencies for many weeks. They said the whereabouts of the arrested leaders were not known.

They warned that if the arrested leaders were not produced in court and their whereabouts were not made known, protests would be organized throughout Sindh.

They demanded that Kalabagh dam, Thal canal and other water projects should be shelved.

A massage of JSMM chairman Shafi Mohammad Burfat was also read to the protesters. Mr Burfat, who himself is a fugitive, urged nationalist forces and party activists to unite on one platform for the cause of Sindh.

He asked agencies that if the arrested leaders had been killed, their bodies should be handed over to the party for honourable burial.

He appealed to heads of all countries and human rights organizations to take notice of what he called inhuman state operation against the party.