HYDERABAD, Sept 18 A large number of members of Christian community and activists of Society for Awareness, Development and Empowerment held a demonstration outside the press club here on Friday to condemn the Sialkot incident, the arrest of Robert Masih in an alleged false blasphemy case and his alleged murder in prison.

Speaking on the occasion, Father Samson Sakardin, Soba Bhatti and Ms Rukhsana Bhatti said that the blasphemy law should be repealed as several innocent people had been crucified at the altar of the law since 1986.

They said that Robert Masih was implicated in a false blasphemy case and later killed in the district jail of Sialkot. They said that several innocent people were burnt alive in Gojra in August.

They demanded arrest of the killers of Robert Masih and exemplary punishment to them.

They appealed to the president, prime minister, the chief justice of Supreme Court, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain and other political parties to make efforts to get section 295-A, B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code repealed.

INCOME SUPPRT A large number of village women from union council-17 of Latifabad taluka held a demonstration outside the press club here on Friday to protest against injudicious distribution of funds under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

The women who belonged to Goth Syed Suleman Shah, Goth Hussain Bux Rind, Goth Awais Shaikh, Goth Haji Siddique Solangi and other villages of Deh Mait Khan, alleged that they had been denied funds under the BISP. They alleged that only selected women or those who belonged to the Pakistan People's Party were being provided money under the programme.

They appealed to the authorities, including managing director of the programme Farzana Raja and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, to ensure that poor women of the villages received funds under the programme.

They said that payment of Zakat had also been stopped and their extremely poor families were starving.

PPP-SB Activists of the Pakistan People's Party-SB took out a procession from the railway station to Phulelli road in Tando Mohammad Khan to mount pressure on the government to ensure arrest of the killers of Mir Murtaza Bhutto.

They staged a sit-in on Phulelli road as a result vehicular traffic remained suspended for quite sometime.

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh PPP-SB leader Younus Bhan alleged that the government was protecting the killers of Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mir Murtaza Bhutto.

He said that the people were being made to stand in queues for subsidised flour and then face baton charge by police. He said that the people had been made baggers in the name of Benazir Bhutto Income Support Programme.