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SUKKUR, April 15: Ten persons were injured when police used tear-gas and batons to disperse people who were protesting against the Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) on the Indus Highway near Karampur in Jacobabad on Thursday.
An eyewitness told Dawn on telephone that police had also opened fire to disperse the protestors, in which on person, Fazlan Golo, was wounded.
According to reports, hundreds of villagers and labourers, majority of them belonging to Golo tribe, blocked the highway near Karampur and staged a demonstration outside the PPL office, some 10km from Kandhkot, to protest against recruitment of what they called "unskilled" people from outside Karampur, Kandhkot and adjoining areas, as well as from other provinces.
The reports said the demonstrators, led by Mohammad Moosa Golo and Abdul Fatah Golo, had been baton-charged and fired upon by the police. Ten protesters were wounded in the firing. The injured included Mohammad Moosa, Abdul Fatah, Shaban Golo, Rehmatullah Golo, Lakhmir Golo, Mohammad Amin Golo, Abdul Karim Golo and Fazlan Golo.
Condemning the police action, they said that when the PPL had started working in the area, its management had promised that local people would be recruited for labour work. They accused the PPL authorities of not keeping their words.
When this correspondent contacted Dr Sohail Qadeer and Pervaiz Jabola, manager and deputy manager of the PPL field at Kandhkot, they declined to comment on the situation.
Meanwhile, hundreds of the Sui gas company's employees staged a demonstration at Sui and Dera Bugti against what the called "unnecessary" retrenchment of Bugti employees from the gas field. They warned that if the retrenchment continued, the work would be stopped on both fields.
TWO KILLED: Two people were killed and four others injured when a truck collided head-on with a bus on the national highway near Daharki on Thursday. A passenger bus (LR-2717) was on its way to Karachi when a truck (HT-8671) collided head-on with it as a result two passengers of the bus were killed on the spot while truck driver and a passenger were injured.
FIRE: At least 70 houses, stock of wheat and rice, household goods, cash and ornaments and cattle heads were gutted when a fire broke out in Sahib Khan village near Daharki on Thursday. Some of the villagers also received burn injuries. The fire fighting staff from Ghotki and Daharki controlled the fire after three hours.
