HYDERABAD, Nov 27: Trade unions of Lakhra coalfield have reacted strongly to MPA Nisar Panhwar’s statement against mine workers, terming it ‘provocative and part of a conspiracy to spark ethnic riots’.

About 40 CBA trade unions affiliated with the Muttahida Labour Federation met recently to condemn the MPA’s statement and hail Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza’s clarification on the issue.

The meeting pointed out that 80 per cent of labour force working in the country’s mines, including those of Sindh, belonged to Shangla, Swat, for the simple reason that no one else was ready to work in mines except Pukhtoons. If they refused to work, not a single maund of coal could be extracted from Sindh’s mines, they claimed.

They meeting said that they would foil any conspiracy against mine workers and demanded that the Sindh government should take notice of the provocative statement, which was aimed at sparking ethnic riots.

The secretary general of the Muttahida Labour Federation, Qamoos Gul Khattak, lashed out at Mr Panhwar in a press statement for his remarks against Pukhtoons and welcomed clarification by the interior minister and law minister.

He criticised harassment of mine workers by police and pressure to get their names registered at the police station. No mine worker at Lakhra coalfield was a terrorist or foreigner and no fugitive could take shelter there, he said.