KARACHI, Feb 3: Speakers at a protest demonstration on Saturday condemned the forced disappearance of nationalist leader Dr Safdar Sarki and others.

The protest demonstration largely attended by women was organised by Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz at the Karachi Press Club. Abdul Waheed Aresar, Riaz Chandio, Maula Bakhsh Nohani, Bashir Shah, Zulfiqar Kolachi and others addressed the demonstrators, who were holding placards and banners inscribed with their demands.

The protesters said several nationalist leaders were picked up by the agencies and demanded their immediate release. They said if these people were required in any investigation they should have been formally arrested and tried in court and their relative allowed to meet them.

They said Dr Safdar Sarki, Akash Malah, Asif Baladi and several others were picked up many months ago but the police and other law enforcement agencies were not acknowledging that they had arrested them.

The speakers maintained that the establishment was systematically crushing the nationalist leadership in the smaller federating units.