LARKANA, July 4: A rice trader and the president of the Hindu Panchayat, Larkana district, Santosh Kumar, and his driver were kidnapped by five armed men on Sunday.

The jeep, in which Mr Kumar was travelling, was intercepted on the Indus Highway near Pakho town by the armed men.

They dragged him from his vehicle and sped away on their jeep. The kidnappers robbed a car near Mashori Sharif village after their jeep went out of order and drove the car away, leaving their jeep on the road.

Mr Kumar owned a rice mill in Gaji Khuhawar town. Speaking at a press conference, MNA Ramesh Lal, Lekharaj, Naresh Lal and chairmen of the Panchayat committee from all sub- divisional headquarters of the district said that minorities in Pakistan were already feeling insecure.

They said that these kind of incidents would further aggravate the sense of insecurity among them. They said that if the police failed to recover Seth Santosh Kumar within 24 hours, the Hindu community would announce a protest schedule.

Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Sindh Baluchistan Rice Millers and Traders Association, Akbar Shaikh said that kidnappings would cast a negative impact on the rice business in Sindh and Baluchistan.

He warned that 750 rice mills in Sindh and Baluchistan would be closed if the Mr Kumar was not recovered soon. A police team headed by DPO Agha Tahir had gone after the kidnappers.

BOOKED: The Ratodero police on Saturday registered a case against 350 people, including Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz chairman Bashir Qureshi, for blocking the vehicular traffic on the Larkana-Ratodero road.

JSQM activists and farmers in the lead of Mr Qureshi on Saturday held a protest rally in Ratodero against an acute shortage of irrigation water in Sindh and particularly in Ratodero. Momin Samo, Momin Odho, Asif Odho and others were also booked in the same case registered on behalf of state. However, the police made no arrest.