THATTA, Jan 1: Nineteen people, including an academician and a newsman, were booked under sedition charges for participating in a rally on Wednesday. Ex-principal Mohammad Usman Samoon, 66, and Awami Tehrik Thatta Taluka president Ashraf Palijo and a journalist were picked up by the Daro police on Thursday.

The FIR was lodged on the complaint of the SHO of Daro, Gul Munir Qazi, on behalf of the State under sections 121, 121A, 124, 153A, 341, 186 PPC and 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

According to the charges, the accused had raised anti-Pakistan and anti-Gen Musharraf slogans and set ablaze an effigy of President Gen Pervez Musharraf during a demonstration they had staged in Daro town against the construction of Kalabagh dam and the greater Thal canal.

Local social and political circles criticized the arrest of an old academician, former sub-divisional education officer and intellectual, Mohammed Usman Samoon. Mr Sammon was thrown blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back into the police mobile.

SALARY DEMANDED: The only bread-earner of his five-member family, Mohammad Hanif Dandal, a peon at the Thatta DPO office, has threatened to observe an indefinite strike if his salary was not paid.