HYDERABAD, July 19: The dissident group of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League on Thursday accused its rivals of uprooting a relief camp for flood victims they had set up outside the press club a day before.

The dissidents’ leaders, S. M. Ilyas, Rizwan Kaka, Mehboob Junejo and Guddu Qambrani said at a news conference at the press club that the group of five, which had been thrust on PML workers of Hyderabad by Senator Ghaffar Qureshi, political secretary to the chief minister, dismantled the camp and resorted to hooliganism.

They said that the group wanted to provoke workers to respond in the same manner but their hands were tied with the assurances given to them by the central senior vice-president of the party, Maqbool Shaikh.

They demanded that the chief minister who was also provincial president of the party should remove the senator and his “Gangster Group” and urged him to take the party affairs in his own hands.

DEMO: A large number of people including women and children staged a demonstration and a sit-in outside the office of DPO and at the press club in protest against raid by Tandojam police on the Mohammad Sadiq Khaskheli village and a villager’s arrest. The protesters kept the road completely blocked for more than half an hour and did not even allow pedestrians to pass through.

Mohammad Khaskheli and Soomar Khan Khaskheli alleged that the police, at the instance of Leghari Nawabs, raided the village last night, violated the sanctity of home and subjected women and children to torture.

Police them took away Shaukat Khaskheli who was being tortured at the police station, they said and appealed to the authorities to take action against police and Leghari Nawabs.

STRIKE: The employees of Population Welfare Department under the banner of All Pakistan Clerks Association staged a token hunger strike outside the press club here on Thursday.

APCA leader Dost Ali Shaikh demanded regularisation of the services of its employees according to a notification already issued.

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