DADU, Jan 2: Twenty suspects were arrested in the Jhallo police jurisdiction on Friday after bandits went on a looting spree on Dadu-Moro road.
The dacoits blocked the road near Dadu-Moro bridge, looted thousands of rupees cash from passengers and drivers of passing vehicles.
Eight passengers were slightly injured as they were beaten with sticks. The dacoits also stopped a Nawabshah-bound car, looted its occupants and attempted to kidnap Hidayatullah Rind, the brother of ex-MPA Inayat Ali Rind, and Abdul Ghafoor Kaloi, but they offered resistance.
The dacoits opened fire on them as a result Rind and Kaloi received bullet injuries. They were taken to the People's Medical College Hospital Nawabshah where their condition is stated to be critical.
Later, the dacoits escaped with the loot towards the Kutcho area. A heavy contingent of police chased the dacoits and have surrounded ten villages along the Indus river including Dano Chandio, Jhallo, Koraee, Khera and Gulab Shaikh.
Following house to house search, the police arrested 20 suspects from the villages. The search was continuing in the Kutcho area till the filing of this report.
Meanwhile, DPO Ali Akbar Bhangwar reverted the Jhallo SHO on the charge of negligence of duty. MILL WORKERS: About 1,200 families of employees of the Dadu Sugar Mills, Piaro Goth, are forced to live a miserable life as they have not received their salaries for the past four years.
The Dadu Sugar Mills was set up by former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1976 and 400 people were appointed on regular basis while 200 were on daily wages.
The management advanced loans of Rs500 million to some 300 influential people of the area to cultivate sugarcane but the amount was never repaid. Later, the then chief minister, Syed Abdullah Shah, appointed 400 regular employees while some 300 more workers were employed for different periods by the mill which increased the cost of expenditure. Moreover, some cases of corruption were also detected.
Taking note of the situation, the Sindh government closed the mill in 1999 which hit the employees most as they had neither received their salaries nor had the government released funds for the running of the mill.
Meanwhile, growers also had to face problems as sugarcane cultivated on a huge scale was not being lifted. The president, Dadu Sugar Mills Employees Union, Allahando Abro, said ever since the mill was closed, 1,200 families of the employees were facing starvation.