HYDERABAD, Oct 15: Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) chairman Dr Qadir Magsi on Monday demanded immediate release of more than 200 workers of the Sindh Bachayo Committee (SBC) he claimed to have been arrested during a crackdown across Sindh.

Speaking to journalists at the party’s protest camp at the Naseem Nagar roundabout in Qasimabad, he claimed that thousands of PPP supporters, besides opponents, stayed away for the PPP public meeting in Hyderabad, adding that a few thousand people, including government employees who were forced to attend the meeting, gathered at the venue. This appeared to be a referendum against the Sindh People’s Local Government Act 2012, he said.

Expressing his gratitude to the people who did not attend the show, Dr Magsi said that PPP ministers, lawmakers and other leaders and workers were attacked with rotten eggs, stones and sticks by the people of Sindh when they were on their way to the meeting venue.

“The PPP is repeating the history of Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf by launching a crackdown on its political opponents yet the masses did observe a ‘black law’ on Monday to condemn the PPP celebration of Sindh division,” he remarked.

“Let the PPP hold more such pubic meetings but over 50 million people of Sindh will continue to oppose the new local government law until it is repealed,” he said.

SHOWDOWN AVERTED: A man was injured when PPP activists passing by the STP camp had an altercation with members and supporters of some nationalist parties.

The man, Imran, resident of Hussainabad, was injured during the ensuing fist-fighting.

Police blocked all roads leading to the Naseem Nagar roundabout amid heightening tension but Dr Magsi rushed to the spot and pacified the charged workers of nationalist parties before the brawl could turn into a clash.