KARACHI, Jan 31: Uzair Ahmad’s hat trick propelled Karachi Whites to a 4-0 victory against Larkana in the National Hockey Championship regional qualifying round on a day that was marred by violent protests and misconduct by the losing side on Thursday.

The game was stopped in the 22nd minute for almost ten minutes as Larkana protested over the third goal awarded by umpire Moin Ahmad to Karachi Whites. They walked out of the field to express their displeasure, arguing that the attacker had committed a foul.

While tournament director Jawaid Iqbal was persuading the Larkana players to resume play, organising secretary Glufaraz Ahmad and a few unauthorised persons entered the ground to control the situation.

According to the FIH rules, entry into the ground by anyone other than the manager and the technical officials is strictly prohibited.

Play eventually resumed after the technical officials and the organisers persuaded the Larkana players and officials to get on with the game.

However, Larkana were again protesting within the next three minutes as referee Moin awarded Karachi Whites a penalty corner. This time Larkana outfit were even more rowdy while Mohammad Arsalan misbehaved and manhandled the referee.

The losing side again walked out, this time for full seven minutes. “I will give my report to tournament director of this incident as Larkana players misbehaved with me. But I didn’t show them a red card as organisers had asked me not to penalise them,” Moin told Dawn after the match.

Earlier, Karachi Whites opened the scoring with an fine strike by Mohammad Ebad in the eighth minute. The winners missed several sitters and the closest they came to scoring was the penalty corner in the 10th minute but Mustafa wasted a good opportunity.

Karachi Whites doubled the lead in the 20th minute when skipper Uzair slotted home after being assisted by Zubair. The Whites outfit was reduced to 10 players as Umair Khan was temporarily suspended in the 32nd minute.

The players of both the teams were then called up by the organisers during the break to greet the chief guest.

Larkana seemed to have lost the concentration over the game after being involved in protests in the first half as Karachi resumed attacks but Uzair was felled by a Larkana defender in the circle two minutes into the second session.

Another one of Uzair’s efforts from the top of the circle was well saved by Larkana goalkeeper in the 49th minute. But he sealed the fate of the match by completing his treble in style when he scored off a deflection in the 65th minute.

Karachi Colours, who were shocked by Larkana in the semi-finals, were once again stunned when Hyderabad who beat them 4-3, courtesy an Abid match-winner in the third place playoff.

Junaid Aslam started for Karachi Colours with a fourth-minute goal, while Hyderabad levelled the score through Aqeel Iqbal the next minute and grabbed the lead with a Shahid Waheed goal in the 13th minute.

The local outfit equalised through Mohammad Atif in the 20th minute before Hyderabad again went ahead after an Aqeel strike in the 45th minute.

The Colours leveller came through Arif Hanif in the 49th minute but Abid snatched the winner in the 59th minute.

Karachi Colours, Karachi Whites, Larkana and Hyderabad will now play in the main round which starts from Feb 5 in Peshawar.