BADIN, Dec 3: Traders observed a complete strike in the city on Monday in protest against lawlessness and growing incidents of robbery in the city and its adjoining towns and villages.

A large number of traders and members of general public, wearing black armbands, marched on the main city road before staging a sit-in on the secretariat road. The call for strike and march was given by the Citizen Action Committee.

Led by trader leaders Taj Mohammad Mallah, Abbas Soomro, PPP leaders Dr Sikandar Ali Mandhro and Sohail Akbar Mirza the protesters chanted slogans against police and demanded transfer of DPO and suspension of the SHO of Badin.

They said that the criminals had wriggled out of their holes after the posting of new district police chief and urged the government to protect life and property of people. PPP leaders demanded that the police should apprehend the culprits.

INJURED: Five fishermen suffered injuries, three of them critical, in a clash between fishermen and contractors over possession of Daphri Lake on Monday.

A dispute over the possession of lake was running between contractor Bachal Mallah and local fishermen Ali Mohammad Mallah and his colleagues. The contractor claimed that his tenure of contract for fishing stretched to 2009, while the fishermen argued that the contract system had been abolished.