LARKANA, June 13: Several activists were baton-charged and detained as police stormed a protest demonstration of the People’s Hari Committee (PHC) near the Civil Lines police station here on Thursday minutes before the arrival of the cavalcade of the Sindh governor.

The activists of the PHC, led by Hari councillor and chief whip of Larkana District Council, Ameer Bakhsh Gaad, emerged from a nearby restaurant only a couple of minutes before the arrival of the cavalcade of Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro at the round about near Civil Lines and Women police stations.

The PHC members were trying to lodge their protest over the acute shortage of water in Larkana district that has caused the rice saplings to dry.

The protestors were, however, baton-charged and several of them were arrested by police to clear the way for the cavalcade of the governor.

Gaad and other held peasant councillors and PHC members were later released after the governor left Larkana.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people, living on both sides of the railway line running through the Larkana city, on Thursday staged a demonstration and stopped the Khushhal Khan Khatak Express by lying on the railway track to protest against the Pakistan Railways’ orders to vacate their houses.

The protesters gathered at the railway crossing in Hydari Mohalla and chanted slogans against the railway administration for ejecting them from their houses where they have been living for more than 40 years.

They also stopped the Khushhal Khan Khatak Express by lying on the railway track. The train resumed its journey after the protesters cleared the trck on the passengers’ request.

The protestors were demanding alternative plots for them.

They later tried to proceed towards the Chandka Medical College to lodge protest before the Sindh governor who was attending the college convocation. However, they were prevented from reaching the CMC by a heavy contingent of police.