KARACHI, July 12: Over a two dozen people, comprising men, women and children, belonging to Lyari area, went on hunger strike on Saturday afternoon, to protest against the chronic water shortage problem in their locality.

A camp was set up by the hunger strikers who were mainly residents of the Shah Beg Lane Union Council area, in front of Shah Beg Union area.

A protesting worker told Dawn that the locality had been facing the problem for the past 18 years. Despite repeated protests for the last several months, he said, the authorities had not taken any action to solve the problem.

A spokesman of the hunger strikers said the protest would continue until the solution of the problem. He claimed the hunger strike was joined by the workers of the Pakistan Baloch Anjuman, Shah Beg Lane Welfare Alliance, Ali Mohammad Mohalla Youth Society and Baloch Social Welfare Committee.

He criticized the elected representatives of local bodies for failing to solve their problems.