LARKANA: The grain market in Shahdadkot and over 100 rice mills across the town were shut down on Sunday in response to a call given by Rice Millers Association’s local chapter in protest against unbridled lawlessness in this part of Qambar-Shahdadkot district.

The call was given after a fresh incident of armed robbery in which a prominent trader, Nadir Shaikh, was robbed of Rs1.3 million in a locality falling within the jurisdiction of the A-Section police station.

The closure of grain market left scores of growers and farmers in the lurch as they could not sell their produce brought from far flung areas of the province. They looked perturbed upon finding no buyer in the deserted trading hall.

Speaking to the media, Rice Millers Association’s Shahdadkot President Asif Ali Leghari, General Secretary Summit Kumar, Nadeem Shaikh, Anil Kumar and other traders, expressed their serious concern over an increase in the criminal activities in Shahdadkot over the last few weeks.

Abrupt strike leaves growers in a lurch as they could not find any buyer for their produce in trading hall

They said that trader Nadir Shaikh was held at gunpoint and deprived of Rs1.3m but neither the criminals were traced out nor was the looted money recovered despite the passage of a week.

Failure of the area police in checking crime had already created a sense of insecurity among businessmen and traders, they said, deploring that the police used to promise recovery of looted money every time such an incident took place but they miserably failed to fulfil their responsibility. The traders lamented that they had been in touch with senior police officials of the area but there had been no positive results on the ground so far.

They demanded adequate security to businessmen and traders of the area, arrest of the culprits and recovery of the looted money.

Talking to Dawn over phone on Sunday, Asif Ali Leghari, said that besides the grain market, around 105 rice mills across Shahdadkot remained shut on its call.

According to him, around 5,500 labourers are engaged when trading takes place during wheat season. He acknowledged that these labourers could not earn the day’s wage due to the strike.

He regretted that police had always been keeping traders on false hopes regarding recovery of their looted money, adding that even meetings with the Qambar-Shahdadkot SSP for an improvement in the law and order bore no fruit.

In this regard, he proposed setting up of police check points, as identified by the association, within the three-kilometre radius of the grain market.

He said Shahdadkot is the hub of trade activities as it is located along Sindh’s border with Balochistan. Growers and farmers prefer to sell their produce in Shahdadkot’s grain market, according to him.

Meanwhile, Shah­dadkot DSP Mashooq Keerio and A-Section SHO Tufail Ahmadani visited the association’s office, situated within the grain market, and persuaded its leaders to call off the strike. They assured the leaders that a marked improvement in the law and order would be seen within the next 10 days, robbers would be traced out and looted money recovered from them.

Later, the association announced normal trade and business activities at the grain market to resume on Monday.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2026