NAWABSHAH, July 12: A large number of contractual employees of Pakistan Railways, including gang men, gatemen and patrolling staff, staged a demonstration outside the press club here on Wednesday against non-payment of salaries.

They raised slogans against the Pakistan Railways engineer, Nawabshah, and the divisional commercial officer, Sukkur.

The protesters they had not received their salaries for five months.

Whenever they asked the engineer about their salaries he said the papers had been sent to the DS of railways, Sukkur, and their salaries would arrive soon, they said.

They said that two patrolling gong men, Sain Bux Mari and Naseem Soomro, died of snakebite while working on the tracks but the authorities denied them any medical treatment and instead sent them home.

They demanded that the prime minister, federal minister for railways and DS Sukkur intervene to get their salaries released, and warned if they did not get their pay within three days, they would commit en masse self-immolation.