DADU, April 9: A large number of passengers held a demonstration and blocked the Indus Highway, near the Marakhpur police check post on Wednesday, to protest against two inspectors of the excise police, Hyderabad.

The protesters told newsmen that the team of excise police led by two inspectors, S. K. Awan and Waseem Abbasi, had stopped their vehicles in front of the Marakhpur police check post and demanded thousands of rupees as bribe. On refusal, they had threatened to fine and chargesheet their vehicles.

They said that the officials of the excise police were collecting money from the transporters at the rate of Rs500 to Rs600 for every vehicle on the Indus Highway, and if anyone did not pay this amount, he was misbehaved with and fined.

ACCIDENT: A girl, Shahul Khaskheli, 10, was killed when she was hit by a Hyderabad-bound bus on the Indus Highway, near Sehwan town, on Wednesday while she was trying to cross the highway.

The driver did not stop.

GUTTED: Twenty shops were gutted when a fire broke out in the main bazaar of Bhan Saeedabad town late Tuesday night.

The shopkeepers said that the fire started due to a short circuit.