JACOBABAD, Oct 21: On the call of the Citizens Action Committee and Chamber of Commerce, hundreds of people and political activists took out a rally here on Tuesday to protest against prolonged power loadshedding.

Led by Chamber of Commerce president Ahmed Ali Brohi, Citizens Action Committee president Mohammad Akram Abro, JUI leader Dr A.G. Ansari, Hindu Panchayat president Lalchand Sitlani and labour leader, Ghulam Nabi Rind, the protesters gathered at Sarafa Bazaar roundabout.

Carrying banners and placards and raising slogans against Hesco, they marched on mains roads of the city and reached at Quetta road near Shaheed Allah Bux Park where they staged a sit-in and blocked the road.They burnt tyres as a result of which traffic between Sindh Balochistan remained suspended for two hours.

DPO Saqib Ismail reached there along with heavy contingent of police. However, protesters refused to clear the road. Their leaders said that 16 hours loadshedding in Jacobabad district has compelled the people to take to streets.

They said loadshedding had made the life of the people miserable and making the children, women and patients to suffer. They condemned the power outage and said that people from rural areas complained of 18 hours of loadshedding.

The chakkis and flour mills remained closed which led to shortage of flour and increase in the flour prices.

When contacted, Hesco XEN Mazhar Shaikh said that he had chalked out an eight hour schedule for loadshedding in the district.

Our Hyderabad bureau adds: On the call of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, a shutter down strike was observed in Tando Mohammad Khan on Tuesday to protest against the unannounced loadshedding by Hesco.

All the business centres on Station road, Mehran chowk, Al-Fateh chowk, Bathoro road, Phulelli chowk, Shahi Bazaar and other areas remained closed. A heavy contingent of police was deployed in the town to maintain law and order.

JSQM activists led by district president Abdul Rahim Halepoto and Zahid Jiskani took out a rally and staged a sit-in on Hyderabad-Badin road.

Speaking on the occasion, the JSQM leaders said that if unannounced loadshedding was not stopped, they will enlarge the scope of their protest.