SUKKUR: A large number of protesters blocked the National Highway near Rohri town on Saturday, demanding immediate recovery of their relative, who was kidnapped a month ago in Kashmore where he worked for a gas company.

The protesters belonging to the Pashtun community kept both sides of the road blocked for about 10 hours and refused to talk to police or lift the blockade till their man, Khalid Betini, was freed from the clutches of the dacoits who had held him captive in the riverine areas of KandhkotKashmore district.

Vehicles going from Karachi to Peshawar and vice versa remained stuck in long queuesduringthe course oftheprotestand passengers, including women, children and the elderly faced great inconvenience due to unavailability of drinking water andfood, said police.

Sukkur SSP Sanghar Malik told Dawn police had informed the protesters that Kashmore police were busy conducting operations against dacoits to get all the hostages freed from dacoits` clutches and their missing man too would also be recovered.

He said that police would get the road reopened as they had convinced the protesters to negotiate with police and a delegation from among them had come for talks at SSP office.

Sources said that members of Pathan community had earlier protested in Kashmore a few days ago and blocked main road for about three days. They had now moved their protest to Sukkur, they said.

They said that undoubtedly, law and order situation had deteriorated in Kandhkot-Kashmore district where dacoits had abducted nearly 50 people, includingfour children and a housewife within a month.

They said that only that day in the morning, six armed dacoits stormed into a grocery shop in Sabzi Mandi area and subjected the shopkeeper, Mohammad Iqbal, to severe torture before taking away his 21-year-old son, Irfan Ali, to their hideout.

When news about the abduction reached police, they went after the dacoits but failed to get the hostage rescued as the abductors had vanished into the riverine areas by then.

Police said that they had transported the wounded shopkeeper to taluka hospital for treatment.

The shopkeeper told media persons that the dacoits had been demanding protection money and threatened him of dire consequences if he had not met their demands.

He had already complained about it to area police but they failed to protect them against the dacoits, he complained.