The National Highway in Moro taluka of Noushehro Feroze district turned into a battleground between the police and the workers of a nationalist organisation on Tuesday, claiming the lives of at least two protesters and left dozens of men from the both sides injured.
The protest was called to protest against the six canals and the corporate farming projects. Reportedly, the police used force to prevent the protesters from staging a sit-in on the National Highway. The protesters looted some trucks besides setting three of those vehicles, including an oil tanker, on fire.
The enraged workers ransacked the house of Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, burnt rooms and furniture and even threw outers of the split air-conditioners from the roof on the ground. Their action was repelled when reinforcement of private guards reached the house.
The armed guards were recorded in several videos firing gunshots in the air to disperse the charged mob. The black fumes darkened the skies over the Lanjar House and the smoke-covered sky could be seen from several kilometres away.
In a video dozen of persons can be seen climbing on a trailer truck, carrying urea bags. Before burning those vehicles, they looted the bags as some of them threw them down from the truck, while others took the bags away on their motorbikes.
The movement of traffic was also halted for several hours on either sides of the highway. The nationalists claimed that at least two workers, Irfan Laghari and Zahid Laghari, were killed during the alleged police firing. At least three cops also sustained injuries with their heads seen bleeding.
One of the injured policemen, who was bleeding from his head, tried to enter a government hospital but he was thrown out of the premises. Men carrying sticks forcefully entered a petrol pump's manager room and allegedly looted cash. Videos shared on social media showed protesters hitting cops with sticks and hurling abuses while the policemen continued aerial firing and teargas shelling.
The police reinforcement from Nawabshah and Sukkur were called in to restore law and order in the district. Leaders of several nationalist parties condemned the police action.
In a statement they held the provincial government responsible for turning peaceful protests violent. They claimed that the police action was meant to sabotage the ongoing peaceful protests against canals and corporate farming.
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