KARACHI, June 12: With an average of 10 a day, as many as 1,457 agitational activities took place in the past five months in the province, a report compiled by the Sindh police says.

358 activities took place in Karachi, 752 in Hyderabad region and 347 in Sukkur region. Of these, 37 per cent were hunger strikes, 16 per cent protest processions and rallies, two per cent sit-ins, one per cent boycotts, 34 per cent demonstrations, 7 per cent blockade of roads and two per cent strikes.

Nine per cent were against the Thal canal project, six per cent for reinstatement of workers, five per cent of students, five per cent against government’s policy on religious schools, 13 per cent against shortage of water, seven per cent against non-payment of salaries, 11 per cent of political nature, five per cent against Wapda, the KESC and the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, and two per cent against the detention of Qazi Husain Ahmed, the chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami, and 37 per cent for other issues.

The report stated that 22 per cent of the agitational activities were sponsored by local residents and citizens, 14 per cent by political parties, eight per cent by religious parties, seven per cent by paramedical staff, four per cent by industrial workers, two per cent by transporters, 15 per cent by Sindhi nationalists, nine per cent by teachers associations, eight per cent by government employees, seven per cent by students and four per cent by others.

The report stated that about 5,503 religious meetings and processions took place in the five months of which 1,957 were in Karachi, 1,215 in Hyderabad region and 2,331 in Sukkur region. — PPI