LARKANA: Police stopped several hundred primary schoolteachers from holding a sit-in outside the Bhuttos` mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bukhsh Bhutto on Sunday.

Hailing from Larkana and Sukkur divisions, the teachers carrying banners inscribed with their demands marched up to Garhi Khuda Bukhsh Bhutto covering one kilometre distance. However, police stopped them from going ahead to hold a demonstration outside the gate-12 of the mausoleum.

All Sindh Primary Teachers Association president Intizar Shalgari and general secretary Sikandar Jatoi, who were leading the protesters along with other leaders, held talks with DSP Yar Mohammed Rind requesting him to allow them to hold the demonstration.

They said caravans from different districts of the two divisions had travelled to the town so that their voice be heard by the authorities concerned. They promised to keep the protest peaceful but could not convince the DSP.

Eventually, the protesters held a sit-in away from the mausoleum for two hours.

Speaking to them, the leaders condemned the attitude of the education minister towards their plight. They said the minister was not ready to implement the agreement already reached on accepting their demands.

The leaders announced that a demonstration and sit-in would be held outside the CM House in Karachi on May 23.

They said they were compelled take to the street after the authorities concerned did not pay heed to their plight for four years. The implementation of the agreement was being deferred again and again over the period, they added.

They said they would hold the next sit-in in Nawabshah on May 7 and in Hyderabad on May 15. Before setting off to Garhi Khuda Bukhsh Bhutto, the association held its general body meeting in the Primary School No.1, Naudero, and renewed their pledge to continue the struggle.

On Saturday, office-bearers of the association held a press conference in the Larkana Press Club and criticised the Sindh government for its `anti-teachers and anti-education` policy.

They said thousands of teachers were not being paid their salaries while hundreds others had been sacked.