LARKANA, Nov 16: The villagers, hailing from Warah, held a demonstration in front of the press club and observed hunger strike on Sunday in protest against the closure of primary schools in their union council.

The protesters included the Nazim, Union Council Mirpur, Mohammed Chandio.

They alleged that a middle school located in Kariyo Sasbbar was lying closed since 2000 despite staff having been posted there.

They said 44 schools, including two girls’ schools, were also lying closed in the union council’s limits, and added that the staff posted there was regularly drawing salaries by greasing the palm of the educational officials concerned.

They alleged that the headmasters of the closed schools had syphoned off huge amount of funds reserved for School Management Committees by placing bogus vouchers on the files.

The protestors said that many of the headmasters and teachers posted in these schools were doing private business.

They demanded the government to dismiss them and that all closed schools be reopened soon.

The schools which are lying closed include the Middle School Kariyo Sabbir, Primary Schools of Abdullah Chandio, Pir Saleh Shah, Bhambho Khan Gadhi, Mirzapur, Miyani, Kandodero, Mirpur, Sawaee Chandio, and Meenhoon Khan Rind.

TEACHERS: The rival factions of primary school teachers, following a meeting late Saturday night, decided to bury all petty differences and resume academic activities in Larkana city from Monday.

The press secretary of the Teachers Association on Sunday said that feeling the widening gulf amongst the teachers, the district president, Liaquat Ali Daidar, intervened and talked to the leaders of the factions.

The rival factions agreed to unite.

The association’s spokesman said that from Monday normalcy would return to 80 primary schools in Larkana city.

BOY FOUND DEAD: The Larkana police recovered the body of a seven-year-old boy, Lakhmir alias Ali Sadda Abro, from an abandoned plot in Shaikh Zayed Colony on Sunday. He had been missing along with his cousin, Mujahid Hussain, 9, since Nov 13.

Some children while playing in the plot spotted a human arm. On digging, they found other body parts.

They fled in fear and told their parents about it. The latter informed the police.

The police arrived at the spot and found the boy’s body wrapped in a sack. The boy’s parents were called who identified it as being that of their son.

Lakhmir’s body was sent to the mortuary of the Chandka Medical College Hospital for an autopsy.