HYDERABAD, April 29: The Sindh National Party (SNP) warned on Sunday that it would start a campaign of protest demonstrations starting from May 3 and hold a peoples' assembly in Hyderabad on May 20 in protest against arrests of more than 50 party workers on April 25 allegedly at the instance of the district government.

SNP leaders Ashraf Noonari, Bachal Shoro, Junaid Ahmed Bhatti and Murad Bhambhro said at a news conference at the pres club that the Sindhi localities in the district were being discriminated against by the district government.

They claimed that since the SNP had raised voice against the atrocities against Sindhis its workers had become a target of victimisation by an ethnic group and false cases were being registered against them.

Five years ago, the MQM had agreed to become Gen Musharraf's coalition partner in return for handover of the Hyderabad district government and under the plan Hyderabad was divided into four districts, they said and added that Hyderabad was handed over to MQM and the other three newly-created districts were made personal fiefdoms of waderas.

They also accused some nationalist groups of involvement in the division and said that they only issued statements and did not take any practical steps against the step.

The leaders said that the district government had declared 22 Sindhi villages illegal and served demolition notices on six others. They were against the land-grabbers and were prepared to cooperate with the district nazim in this regard, they stressed.

They demanded that the

district government should

first eject land-grabbers from Pucca Qilla, Hirabad and Latifabad and force the law enforcement agencies to vacate 600 acres of land they had illegally occupied.

They pointed out that Latifabad and Qasimabad talukas had had equal share of damages from the last year’s heavy rains but the district government focussed all its energies only on Latifabad setting up 36 relief camps there and no relief camp in Qasimabad. The affectees in Qasimabad did not receive even a single penny as compensation, they claimed.

They demanded that the district government should undertake development works in Sindhi localities, shift training centre and Nadra offices to their original places, stop issuance of birth certificates and CNICs to the outsiders and withdraw cases against SNP workers.