KARACHI: Police on Monday batoncharged a group of disabled persons, including women, outside the Sindh Assembly for protesting over non-implementation of a job quota in government departments.

As over two dozen protesters, including women, arrived at the main gate of the assembly building, policemen deployed there encircled them, started beating them with batons and shoved them on the pretextthat they were trying to enter the assembly premises.

A disabled woman fell unconscious due to the police assault.

The condition of a protester, Rubina, who is an expectant mother, deteriorated due to the police action. She was taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi for treatment.

However, she returned to the protest after one hour.

Tall(ing to media, the protesters said that they had been protesting outside the Karachi Press Club for the last 165 days for imple-mentation of a job quota for them.

They added that when they tried to seek attention of the people`s representatives, the police subjected them to brutal torture.They said that the government had announced a two per cent job quota for disabled persons, which was increased up to 5pc in the recent past.

The protesters complained that instead ofappointing disabled on the seats reserved for them, the authorities were allegedly recruiting able bodied persons on their place.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal took notice of the incident and ordered an inquiry to ascertain on whose directions the police baton-charged them.

The home minister and LG Minister Syed Nasir Shah also met with the protesters and assured them that they would look into their legitimate demands and try to accommodate them if vacant seats existed in the government departments/institutions.