SUKKUR / MIRPURKHAS: Awami Tehreek (AT) has announced that it will hold a protest demonstration in Pannu Agil against corporate farming and `dacoits` rule` in upper Sindh.

An e ducational workshop will be held in Sukkur on August 14 and the protest demonstration in Pannu Agil on Aug 27, according to a press release issued by AT`s Sukkur district chapter said.

The decision was taken at the chapter`s general council meeting, it said, adding that it was chaired by Ayaz Kalwar.

The meeting was attended by AT`s central senior vice president Noor Ahmed Katiar, central general secretary Advocate Sajid Hussain Mahesar and Sarwan Jatoi.

Addressing the meeting, the leaders said that corporate farming was a conspiracy aimed at systematically occupying the lands of Sindh.

As long as these corporate farming projects existed, the threat of new canals anddams would continue to loom over Sindh, they said.

They alleged that `record corruption` had been committed in the maintenance work of the Sukkur Barrage.

Funds allocated for the cleaning of canals and water channels have also been devoured by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), they further alleged.

They lamented that even light rainfall resulted in major destruction due to official negligence. `The PPP has turned the irrigation department into a base of corruption,` they remarked.

The leaders demanded an investigation into the corruption in barrage repairs and canal desilting budgets, and called for the arrest of corrupt officials.

They also alleged that the PPP government had deliberately encouraged banditry. `Citizens no longer have security of their lives and protection for their property. Bandits are reportedly under the patronage of state-backed feudal lords, they observed.

The AT leaders demanded formation ofa judicial commission to investigate how NATO-grade weapons were being supplied to bandits.

JSM-R protest The Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz (JSM-R) has, meanwhile, announced a sit-in to be held on July 27 on Mirpurkhas-Hyderabad road against policies of the federal and Sindh governments.

The announcement was made at a rally held in Mirpurkhas on Friday. It was led by JSM-R chairman Riaz Ali Chandio, vice chairman Nawaz Shah Bhadai, general secretary Ghaffar Mirjat, press secretary Ayaz Solangi, Azad Dal Abid Kori and Mumtaz Arisar.

The rally covered a distance of five kilometres starting from Gama Stadium and concluding at the Baldia Complex.

Addressing the participants, Riaz Chandio alleged that all human rights had effectively been suspended in Sindh, where resources were being plundered, and unemployment and poverty werebeing deliberately created. `The state`s patronage has reached an extreme where land mafias have occupied Sindh`s lands and are attempting to change its demography, leading to destruction,` he alleged.

Chandio further stated that mangrove forests in Karachi were being cut down, informal settlements demolished, and indigenous communities forcibly displaced from their ancestral villages.

He also appealed to the judiciary to intervene and stop the `forced conversion` of minor Hindu girls. `These girls are being held hostage,` he claimed, and observed that the situation was spreading fear and terror in villages.

He urged courts and international organisations to take notice and play their role in ending what he termed `a dark night of oppression` and in restoring justice in Sindh.

Chandio also criticised corporate farming projects, saying that lands should be given to local people instead of local and foreign investors.