SUKKUR, July 24: The Nazim of Union Council Thul-2, Ghous Bakhsh Sarki, and two other leaders were arrested after registration of a case against 53 people accused of blocking highway during their protest against the shortage of water in Musa Allah Dad Canal and Ameen Minor on Wednesday.
They have been charged with interference in the official duties.
Those booked were among hundreds of people, led by Ghous Baksh Sarki, Ali Nawaz Sarki and Haji Sikandar Sarki, who took out a procession and staged a sit-in at a section of the Indus Highway. They also staged a sit-in at the office of the SDO, Irrigation, for several hours.
The protesters burnt tyres to disrupt vehicular traffic and raised slogans against the irrigation department.
Senior police officers intervened to persuade them to lift the blockade of highway and on their refusal, police used force to disperse them.
DEFAULTERS: The Chief Executive of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), Brig Tariq has taken a serious notice of the long list of defaulters in Khairpur, Ghotki and Sukkur.
He observed that an amount of Rs458 million was outstanding against these defaulters.
The list was presented to him at a high level meeting, presided over by him here on Wednesday, which was attended by the superintendent engineer and the XENs of the zone.
The officials told the Hesco chief that Rs74 million had been recovered from defaulters during the ongoing campaign in Sukkur while the recovery in Ghotki stood at Rs62 million and in Khairpur at Rs26.7 million.
Brig Arshad asked the officials to expedite the recovery campaign and spare no defaulter especially the government departments.
DEVELOPMENT: The Zila Nazim, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, has urged the people to identify the development schemes where sub-standard material was being used. He pledged an appropriate action against the executive agencies in this regard.
His remarks came at the inaugural ceremony of various development schemes, including Khajoor Mandi Road and drainage schemes of Solangi Mohalla, Minority Colony and Shahbaz Colony, here on Wednesday.
CONVICTED: The Judge of Anti-terrorism Court-II, Sukkur, on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to two persons, Nazeer Ahmed, son of Shahnawaz, and Sono Phulpoto, and ordered confiscation of their properties in a case of attempted kidnapping.
The complainant, Zaheer Ahmed Matlo, had charged in his petition that the accused, with the help of four other persons, had tried to kidnap him and one of his farmers on Jan 19, 2001 in the jurisdiction of the Ahmedpur police station. The petitioner said that villagers came to his rescue and their aerial firing forced the kidnappers to flee.