KARACHI, May 25: Police arrested at least 50 activists of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz from the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Clifton on Tuesday , who allegedly intended to march towards the British Deputy High Commission to hand over a memorandum to seek British government's support for "oppressed nations."

The JSQM had announce that it would stage a sit-in on the National Highway near Pipri, and later a rally would be brought out, which was to go to the British Deputy High Commission to present a memorandum to seek the support of the British government in their struggle against the construction of controversial water projects in the province, including Greater Thal Canal and Kalabagh dam.

In the morning, the JSQM activists staged a brief sit-in at the National Highway to record their protest against the proposed projects. Police had blocked all the roads leading to the Commission with containers and mini-buses. Heavy contingents of police and the Rangers had been deployed there to block the protesters.

Police arrested around 50 JSQM activists from the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, who had allegedly gathered there to march towards Runnymede. The arrested activists include, Sarmad Merani, Gul Hassan Bhugio, Akram Bachani, Roshan Chutta, Akhtar, Hidayatullah, Abdul Aziz, Mushtaq Khokhar and others.

Police also resorted to teargas shelling in Cheel Chowk, Lyari Town, to disperse the JSQM activists. There were also reports of arrests by the police. Meanwhile, JSQM leader Faqir Tuniya claimed that the police had arrested their 200 activists and warned the Sindh government to release them within next 24 hours, otherwise the party would be compelled to launch province-wide protest campaign. -PPI