LARKANA: Seven activists of the Awami Workers Party-Marxist (AWP-M) were granted bail by the Larkana District and Sessions Court on Saturday in a sedition and rioting case.
The activists Singar Nonari, Sadam Hussain, Zain Shah, Sajjad Gadhi, Imdad Chinjni, Farhan Ali and Ali Raza were among more than 30 participants of the ‘Save Sindh Awami March’ rounded up by police on Sept 12. They were booked for raising slogans against state institutions, blocking the Jinnah Bagh road in Larkana by holding a rally and obstructing police from discharging their official duty. Some women protesters were let off a little later but many of them were arrested. The police also foiled the participants’ attempt to continue with the march.
Advocate Sattar Halepoto represented the seven activists at the hearing of their bail application.
The judge granted them bail in a sum of Rs25,000 each, an AWP-M spokesman confirmed.
Singar Nonari, Khan Ghaffar Khan, Fauzia Singar, Sajjad Gadhi and other party activists alleged that they were implicated in a false case as they were just exercising their right to hold a peaceful march against federal government’s plan for the division of their homeland (Sindh), controversial canals project, inflation and lawlessness in Sindh.
They condemned that male and female political workers participating in the march were subjected to violence by police, who did not allow the march to proceed.
They argued that workers of the ruling PPP and its ally MQM-P were allowed to hold gatherings and rallies but AWP-M was being denied this democratic right.
The FIR (No. 2026/136) was lodged by ASI Nazir Hussain Sargani on behalf of the state at the Market police station under Sections 123-A, 124-A, 147, 149, 341 and 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) after Sunday’s march against a plan to divide Sindh, inflation, lawlessness and, what the party claims, ‘plundering of rivers.
It was learnt that over 20 activists and supporters of the party were still in police custody and kept at different police stations of Larkana district. The party was collecting details about their whereabouts and ascertaining information about their bail.