THATTA, March 19: Over 300 people observed a token hunger strike outside the press club here on Wednesday to protest against alleged police atrocities, abuse of power and usurpation of district’s resources by the Shirazi group.

The protesters, including former Pakistan People’s Party’s MNAs and MPAs, Awami Tehrik leaders and representatives of NGOs, now affiliated with the Stop Tyranny Committee, wore black arm bands and were carrying black flags and banners inscribed with anti-police and anti-Shirazi group slogans.

They alleged District Nazim Syed Shafqat Hussain Shah and his brother, Syed Ejaz Shah Shirazi, an adviser to the chief minister for forest, had made the lives of their political rivals miserable.

They said the Shirazi group, in connivance with the police, had implicated hundreds of political activists in false cases, misappropriated huge funds of development schemes and ruined Thatta forests by selling dozens of trucks loaded with wood.