KHAIRPUR, Oct 5: Three more people, including a human rights activist, were kidnapped in two separate incidents on Saturday.

Karim Bux and Huzoor Bux were kidnapped when they were on their water rotation duty at an agricultural land near Maghanwari town within the jurisdiction of the Pir Jo Goth police station.

Relatives of the kidnapped persons told the local media that when they did not come home till Saturday morning, they went to the agricultural land but did not find them. However, their spades and other things, including clothes, were lying there.

They informed the Pir Jo Goth police and followed their footprints along with the police.

The kidnapped men are relatives. Karim Bux is the father-in-law of Huzoor Bux.

Another person, identified as Kazi Shakeel Ahmed, went missing in Khairpur while being on way to Luqman from Bhurgari on Saturday.

Police found his motorbike, national identity card and some other valuables near Bhurgari regulator and then informed his relatives.

According to his neighbours, the missing person is a human rights activist and also works for a non-governmental organisation.

The Pir Jo Goth and Khairpur police said that they were taking measures for the recovery of the three kidnapped persons.

USC employees protest downsizing

Employees of the Utility Stores Corporation, Khairpur and Sukkur regions, along with members of civil society organisations and trade unions took out a rally from Civic Centre Chowk and held a demonstration outside the local press club on Saturday to condemn downsizing in the corporation.

Labour leaders Adil Rid, Faheem Panhwar, Shahbaz Phulpoto, Amjad Lashari and others spoke to the participants and criticised the PML-N government for sacking daily wage earners and warned that such moves were weakening institutions.

They reminded the top PML-N leadership that downsizing was in conflict with the party’s manifesto and pre-election promises.

They said that about 80 daily wage earners had been associated with the USC in Khairpur for the last five years and another 129 with the Sukkur region for several years. All these poor workers were feared to lose their livelihood, they said, pointing out that some of them had already been stopped from continuing with their jobs.

The leaders urged the government to stop the downsizing.

“Whenever a PML-N government comes to power, it renders people jobless just to meet the conditions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,” they regretted, and urged the PML-N leadership to curtail instead of increasing unemployment.

Self-immolation

A youth reportedly tried to immolate himself after sprinkling petrol on his body in his house in Mehran Colony of Gambat town late on Friday evening.

Naveed Ahmed, 19, son of Mohammad Pinjal Phul, was rushed to the Gambat Hospital but due to his precarious condition doctors referred him to a Karachi hospital.

The doctors said that the youth had suffered 80 per cent burns. Mr Phul, a mason, told the media, that his son was frustrated due to his failure to find a job. He said that due to poverty, he also could not afford educational expenses of his son, who wanted admission to a high school.