Sit-in protest leads to clash between two groups in Badin

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 the 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 the 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." 

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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 by 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.

"If a cut isn't given to the LBOD, which has been overflowing, the water inundating our villages will not drain even in next four to five months," claimed Qurban Khoso, Arshad Chandio and other Shadi Large based protesters.

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These people want the government to channel the LBOD's water to Dhoro Puran.

The people in Kaloi fear that Puran drain will submerge four union councils.

A shutter-down strike was also held in Jhuddo town of Mirpurkhas district where the people are demanding a cut in Dhoro Puran's zero point at RD 210.

"The encroachments over Puran drain which have been blocking the water flows should be removed," said Ashfaq Rajput while addressing the protesters in Jhuddo.

The town people expressed the same concern that their town and surrounding villages will remain underwater for up to five months if the irrigation authorities do not listen to them.