KARACHI/ SUKKUR: Over a dozen people received injuries when police attempted to dislodge camps set up by lawyers in protest against the canals project in Karachi and Kandhkot, on Sunday.

Lawyers are staging sit-ins at Babarloi in Khairpur and Gulshan-i-Hadeed in Karachi for the past several days against the plan to construct six canals on theIndus River.

The protests have caused many problems for road users and transporters as thousands of vehicles have been stuck for days in several areas of the province due to closure of roads.

While the protest camp set up in the metropolis was dismantled by police in the early hours, activists and lawyers managed to hold their ground later in the day.

The legal fraternity and the Save Indus River Movement strongly condemned the police action against the protesters and announced that the sit-ins over controversial canals project will continue at all places including Babarloi, Khairpur.

Home Minister Zia Lanjar said that the Sindh government recognises the right to peaceful protest. He urged lawyers to remain peaceful and assured them that no action would be taken against those protesting peacefully.

Eight hurt in Karachi In Karachi, eight people, including two policemen and a lawyer, were injured and a police vehicle was set on fire in Gulshan-i-Hadeed on Sunday after a police party clashed with members of the legal fraternity in order to end their five-day sit-in against the canals project, according to officials and witnesses.

A participant in the Karachi sit-in said that early in the morning, when only a few protesters had gathered on the road linking the National Highway with theSuperhighway near Gulshan-i-Hadeed, the police took the action, resulting in injuries to one lawyer and detention ofseveralprotesters.

`The police removed the tents set up for the sit-in and cleared the road for vehicular traffic. However, lawyers and political workers mobilised their supporters through social media, urging them to join the protest, he said.

`Over 200 protesters resumed the sit-in, blocking the link road again,` he added.

Sources said that some lawyers visited the Steel Town police station and met Malir SSP Kashif Abbasi, who informed them that the government had decided to open the highways and roads and remove the protesters.

DIG-East Usman Ghani told Dawn: `The police were removing tents blocking the main road in Gulshan-iHadeed for the past several days when they came under an attack by a lawyer, injuring a policeman.

The police retaliated in which the attacker was injured.

The officer added that the police `dislodged the tents from the road and registered an FIR against the violent members of the crowd`.

He said that the police and Rangers were deployed at the site. However, later on the police also came under stone pelting and baton charge by a mob, the officer claimed. Responding to a question, DIG Ghani confirmed that six protesters had been detained, who were injured. `We sent them to hospital for treatment.

He clarified that no one was in police custody, but an FIR was being registered against them.

Meanwhile, Steel Town SHO Allan Khan Abbasi told Dawn: `One policeman was injured in the morning while another was injured in the afternoon. `A police mobile was torched by the mob,` he claimed.

Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassaan Khan told Dawn that when the riot police attempted to disperse the protesters, they set the police mobile alight.

`It was completely destroyed by the time firefighters reached the scene,` Hassan said. `The remains of the torched vehicle were also destroyed by the mob.

Action in Kandhkot Several protesters fainted when police fired shots and tear gas at protesters who had blocked the road at the Gola-Mor (turning) along Kandhkot Bypass on Sund ay morning.

The police took the action to clear the road after long queues of Punjab-bound heavy vehicles were formed on the highway.

According to detail, the sit-in organised by the Lawyers` Alliance and the All Parties Movement against the construction of the canals continued on the ninth day.

Late in the night, a police party fired shots and used tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Four protesters, including the district bar president and leader of the sit-in Abdul Ghani Bijarani fainted due to heavy tear-gas shelling. However, the police left the area when lawyers and nationalists` parties workers did not clear the road and continued the sitin.

When the news spread that the police were preparing to take another action against the protesters, a large number of nationalist parties` workers and activists, carrying clubs and sticks, joined the protect sit-in.