LARKANA, June 4: Five sack-ed workers of Faran Sugar Mills in Shaikh Bhirkiyo who went on hunger strike unto death outside the local press club fell unconscious on Wednesday and were shifted to Chandka Medical College Hospital.

A group of 14 workers, led by mills’ labour union (CBA) president Abdul Latif Katyar and general secretary Abdul Karim Mangwani began a long march from the gate of the sugar mills on May 15, and reached Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto after 14 days of walk.

“We staged protest in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in hope that someone would hear us but the poor response has dejected us,” said Mr Mangwani while talking to Dawn at the hunger strike camp set up here. He said that they came here to register their protest and they want their jobs back.

The protesting workers said that the mills’ management on April 18, 2003, through a notification in local press sacked 426 employees.

The labour union protested against, what they called, the unilateral and illegal action of the mills.

The mills management offered the golden handshake scheme to workers for leaving their jobs which the then union refused to accept. The workers went on protest. They approached the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC), Karachi bench, for justice.

The commission not only granted stay order but also cancelled the notification published in a section of press, the labourer leader said.

Mangwani said, the mills’ management moved the Sindh High Court and got orders of ban on the union activity.

After that the management sacked 426 permanent employees and now the mill was being run by daily-wage labourers, he said.

An appeal in this regard was pending at the Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court, Mangwani added.

He said the hunger strike unto death would continue till the reinstatement of the sacked workers.

ARRESTED: After a hot pursuit Larkana police on Wednesday arrested three robbers and recovered the looted money.