LARKANA, March 6: A 20-foot part of a wall of Mohenjodaro affected by salinity collapsed on Tuesday.

This reporter tried to contact the curator of the pre-historic city for his comments but there was no response from his cellphone.

Sources said that the wall had collapsed in the DK area where excavation had been carried out about a year ago.

After receiving information, officials reached the site and started repair work without recording facts, the sources said. They quoted labourers as saying that the repair work had been left incomplete because of shortage of bricks.

The portion of the wall could not withstand the pressure of earth due to expansion and contraction of salts which had permeated the wall.

The wall was repaired in 1995 and 96 under the now abandoned project of the Moh-enjodaro Conservation Cell, a subsidiary of UNDP, the sources said.

A source at the site said the collapsed portion of the wall was not part of the original structure.

When contacted, Sindh culture secretary Abdul Aziz Uqili said that Minister for Culture Sassui Palijo had taken notice of the reported damage.

He said Sindh’s Director of Archaeology Qasim Ali Qasim had been asked to visit the site, assess the damage and start restoration work.