HYDERABAD, Dec 4: Gross indiscipline marred the finals of hockey and football at the Sindh Games on Tuesday.

Hockey referee Akhlaq Bukhari was beaten by a player in the final between Karachi and Hyderabad while Larkana’s Ahmed Hassan was punched by the referee in the final of the football event against Hyderabad.

To add to the chaos, Larkana’s bodybuilders staged a demonstration at the Niaz Stadium during the closing ceremony while Dr. Mohammad Ali Shah was giving away prizes and shields to the best-performing players.

There was also controversy as the results of the bodybuilding contests were withheld despite having been communicated to journalists, thus allowing Sukkur to secure third position ahead of Mirpurkhas.

It all ended up in the closing ceremony being a lifeless one with neither the Sindh governor nor its chief minister attending it.

Apart from the tableau, performed by girls on traditional music, there were no fireworks and a lot of chaos.

Karachi’s 5-1 triumph over Hyderabad in the hockey final was overshadowed by Hyderabad left-half Wasim beating up referee Akhlaq in 13th minute of first-half.

The row started after Wasim claimed a foul in Karachi’s half which was turned down by Akhlaq. In return, Wasim stormed to meet Akhlaq eye to eye and punched him repeatedly as the referee fell to the ground.

Other reports said that Akhlaq had abused Wasim, who was later shown his marching orders, leaving Hyderabad to play with 10 men.

It resulted in a rout as Karachi hammered five past their hapless rivals with Ghulam Fareed scoring a hat-trick and Ali Mussarat scoring a spectacular individual goal. Rao Amir scored the only goal for Hyderabad.

Hyderabad’s hockey office-bearer Iftikharuddin regretted the incident and said that the punishment for Wasim would be decided by event organisers.

Sukkur won the women’s hockey title, beating Karachi 1-0 while Larkana secured third place, beating Hyderabad by similar score.

Hyderabad won the football event after beating Larkana 2-1 in the final but it was also shrouded in controversy.

According to Larkana coach Agha Gul Rabbani, Ahmed was punched by the referee in the second-half when he claimed a foul.

“Ahmed suffered bruises on his face and we didn’t even get first aid,” Rabbani said. “I have submitted my written complaint to Sindh director sports.”

Rabbani added more controversy to the incident, citing that it was pre-decided. “We beat Karachi 1-0 in the semi-final and he was our main player,” he said. “Hyderabad feared that they would lose the final and that is why he was punched at a crucial juncture of the game.”

Karachi, meanwhile, took third place after a walkover against Sukkur.

Larkana’s bodybuilders, meanwhile, staged a protest against Mohammad Ali Shah, demanding ‘justice’ and condemning the organisers’ indifferent attitude.

“We were not given kits nor any TA/DA,” said Larkana’s bodybuilding association secretary Abdul Hakeem.

“The organisers held bodybuilding contests in a clandestine manner in a factory where shields were also distributed and then again another event was organised on Tuesday afternoon in Latifabad. Only one contestant of Larkana could attend that event.”

Earlier, the organisers had announced the results of bodybuilding events in which Hyderabad won three gold medals, Mirpurkhas two and Larkana one.

The controversy with bodybuilding events had been brewing since Sunday when Dr Shah had announced that due to a conflict between two parallel bodybuilding associations, the events would not be held.

Later, though, one of the warring associations organised the event but the other group too organised the event — at a marriage lawn — claiming that they had been permitted by Dr Shah.

Six different categories, 60kg, 65kg, 70kg, 75kg, 80kg and 85kg, competed in the event in the marriage lawn.

Surprisingly, though, just one contestant, Mohsin of Hyderabad, appeared for the 80kg event and was handed gold. In the end, when the results were held before being revised, Sukkur were declared third instead of Mirpurkhas.