Sit-in protest leads to clash

Seriously ill child dies on way to hospital as protestors block road

HYDRABAD:

The sit-in protest in Badin district, continuing for six days to press the government to give a cut in the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD), turned into a battleground on Wednesday after the protesters blocked passage of a vehicle shifting a critically ill child to a hospital. Seven years old Sumera Kumbhar died allegedly because she was taken to Badin district through an alternate road which was longer in distance.

The men of the enraged Kumbhar community, carrying batons, later allegedly assaulted the protesters in Shadi Large area and uprooted their tent. They also staged a sit-in along with the dead body demanding registration of FIR against the protesters blocking the Thar Coal road, which connects Badin district with Tharparkar.

"Our child died because these protesters didn't let us pass through this road," said Ayoub Kumbhar. "All the men leading this protest should be booked in a murder FIR."

The police remained missing from the fight scene. Although the Kumbhar community is said to have allegedly initiated the attack, the protesters also fought back attacking their men. Badin has been witnessing multiple sit-in demonstrations by the local communities which have come at loggerheads over giving cuts to the LBOD, a drain carrying rainwater of several districts to the sea and Shakoor lake.

The protesters in Shadi Large and Malkani Sharif areas have been pressurising the authorities to create a breach in the drain while those in the Kaloi area of Badin have been opposing this demand.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2022.