THATTA, Dec 13: Dozens of villagers, condemning police atrocities, blocked the National Highway near Jherruk, suspending vehicular traffic for over an hour on Thursday morning.

Narrating their ordeal at the hands of the police to the journalists, Ismail Jamari, Ms Jannat, Anwar and others complained that the residents of Ibrahim Jamari Village were affiliated with the PPP.

During the ongoing election campaign, the villagers claimed, their party opponents let loose terror and also offered temptations to woo them but they did not bow to their pressure.

As the last resort the villagers said, the opponents who were still enjoying the state authority in one way or the other, instigated Jherruk and Keenjhar police which stormed the village in the wee hours of Thursday, thrashed the women and children with rifle butts, ransacked the huts and attempted to drag away some male members of the village. However, police withdrew due to hue and cry raised by the women.

Amid deafening slogans against the police and the PPP opponents, the village elder Kakan Jamari told Dawn that the ugly tactics of the party opponents, mainly the Shirazi group, would prove counter productive and boost PPP’s image.

They later staged a sit-in suspending traffic on the highway.

CONDEMNATION: PPP leaders Arbab Wazir Ahmed Memon and Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro, Sassui Palijo, Syed Masood Mustafa Shah and Ghulam Qadir Malkani, have condemned the attack on Dr Shams Shoro and removal of party flags by the Shirzis in Mirpur Bathoro town.