Police resorts to baton charge
More than a dozen flood victims sustained injuries when police baton charged during the distribution of food items.
SUKKUR:
More than a dozen flood victims sustained injuries when police baton charged them during the distribution of food items at a relief camp following the visit of PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif in Sukkur on Tuesday.
Sharif visited a camp set up at the Government Degree College soon after his arrival to distribute relief items among flood victims who had come from Jacobabad. The survivors, who were in thousands, lunged for the food bags. Those who failed to get any relief goods demonstrated in protest after the PML-N chief’s departure from the camp.
As the protest got out of hand, police started baton charging the victims, triggering a stampede. Three men were injured as a result of the baton charge, while the stampede caused over a dozen victims, including women and children, to fall unconscious.
After the situation calmed down, the doctor at the medical camp treated the injured. The DPO Sukkur was not available to comment on the incident.
Meanwhile, after leaving the relief camp the PML-N chief visited the Sukkur barrage where he was received by Federal Minister for Labour and Man Power Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah and irrigation authorities.
Speaking on the occasion, Sharif said that destruction in Sindh, as well as other parts of the country, was heart wrenching and unparallel to any other disaster in Pakistan’s history.
He added that it is not a single man’s job to deal with the situation. Sharif said that it was in this perspective that he had met the prime minister to advance concrete proposals to overcome the situation.
The irrigation authorities informed the PML-N Chief that the national highway is partly closed due to a breach at Bhong. He further disclosed that the entire irrigation canal network and the structure of the right bank of Sukkur barrage, including Garang regulator of NW Canal (Kirthar canal) heading to Balochistan, has been destroyed and will take years to repair.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2010.
More than a dozen flood victims sustained injuries when police baton charged them during the distribution of food items at a relief camp following the visit of PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif in Sukkur on Tuesday.
Sharif visited a camp set up at the Government Degree College soon after his arrival to distribute relief items among flood victims who had come from Jacobabad. The survivors, who were in thousands, lunged for the food bags. Those who failed to get any relief goods demonstrated in protest after the PML-N chief’s departure from the camp.
As the protest got out of hand, police started baton charging the victims, triggering a stampede. Three men were injured as a result of the baton charge, while the stampede caused over a dozen victims, including women and children, to fall unconscious.
After the situation calmed down, the doctor at the medical camp treated the injured. The DPO Sukkur was not available to comment on the incident.
Meanwhile, after leaving the relief camp the PML-N chief visited the Sukkur barrage where he was received by Federal Minister for Labour and Man Power Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah and irrigation authorities.
Speaking on the occasion, Sharif said that destruction in Sindh, as well as other parts of the country, was heart wrenching and unparallel to any other disaster in Pakistan’s history.
He added that it is not a single man’s job to deal with the situation. Sharif said that it was in this perspective that he had met the prime minister to advance concrete proposals to overcome the situation.
The irrigation authorities informed the PML-N Chief that the national highway is partly closed due to a breach at Bhong. He further disclosed that the entire irrigation canal network and the structure of the right bank of Sukkur barrage, including Garang regulator of NW Canal (Kirthar canal) heading to Balochistan, has been destroyed and will take years to repair.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2010.