HYDERBAD / LARKANA / SUKKUR: People from all walks of life took to the streets on Friday to join the rallies and demonstrations held across Sindh to condemn the unprecedented hike in fuel prices announced by federal government a day earlier.

Fearing the reaction to turn violent, police teams have been deployed at all fuel stations located in sensitive areas to protect them from any possible attack.

Some of the protest rallies and demonstrations, held after Juma prayers, were organised by Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and Sindhi nationalist entities including Sindh United Party, Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Qaumi Awami Tehreek and Awami Tehreek.

In Kandhkot, charged participants of a rally proceeded to the nearby section of the Indus Highway and kept it blocked for more than four hours by holding a sit-in. Long queues of vehicles remained stuck along both tracks of the highway until police intervened to clear it.

The protest was led by Sindh United Party’s district president Zareet Sagar Bijarani, Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party’s district president Akram Bajkani, Jeay Sindh Mahaz district general secretary Comrade Abbas Bajkani and Qaumi Awami Tehreek leader Sajjad Brohi.

A large number of activists belonging to different political and nationalist parties participated in the protest. They raised slogans against the government and its ‘flawed policies’.

Jamaat-I-Islami organised demonstrations in all district headquarters including Sukkur, Larkana, Hyderabad, Mirpu­rkhas, Kandhkot, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Thatta.

JI’s Kandhkot demonstration was led by Hafiz Nasrullah Channa while the party’s Hyderabad district Emir Hafiz Tahir Majeed led a demonstration at Hayder Chowk.

STP Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi, rejecting the government’s decision, said it was an additional burden on already hard pressed masses which would put them in a more difficult position.

Particularly, he said the middle and lower-middle classes would be badly affected.

Qaumi Awami Tehreek President Ayaz Latif Palijo also condemned the hike, and and said that his party would stage protest and hunger strike from April 3 to 7 across Sindh against this unjust decision.

Activists of the Sindh Hari Committee led by Samar Jatoi also held a demonstration in Hyderabad. They said that people were already groaning under price hike and this increase would crush them.

Normal life and flow of vehicular traffic were severely disrupted across Thatta and Makli on Friday as political workers, civil society members and transporters staged noisy demonstrations and held sit-ins.

A big rally was organised by the QAT which was led by its district president Mumtaz Sheikh and his party colleagues Yasir Jakhro and Shafi Mohammad Palijo. The participants marched from the Edhi Centre to the Thatta Press Club, where they staged a sit-in.

They also blocked the nearby section of the National Highway.

The leaders termed the fuel price hike announcement a “midnight raid on the pockets of the poor”.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2026