NAWABSHAH, March 17: Police arrested three Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz leaders here on Wednesday for blocking road during a protest sit-in against the Kalabagh dam and Thal canal projects in Sakrand on Feb 28.

Those arrested, Nawabshah JSQM chief Sarfaraz Memon, Shahnawaz Chandio and Mohammad Bukhsh, had been booked under section 342, 353, 147, 148 of the PPC and section seven of the Anti-Terrorism Act, said TPO Gul Mohammad Phul. He added that others nominated in the FIR included party chief Bashir Qureshi, Abdul Wahid Areesar and Niaz Kalani.

Meanwhile, Mr Qureshi told this correspondent over telephone that arrests of the JSQM workers were being made all over Sindh. He said that the government was afraid of their political struggle and wanted to fail their protest of March 30 as they had planned on blocking the cargo service to Punjab in protest over the disputed water projects.

He said that the dam and the canal were against the interests of water-starved Sindh whose people would not allow the construction of such projects. He said that the JSQM believed in political struggle but added that if the rulers continued their indifferent attitude, they would go forward.

POLICE CRITICIZED: A woman who was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home by six men, who sexually assaulted her and broke five of her teeth, said Moro police were not registering her FIR against the men who attacked her.

Speaking to newsmen at the neurosurgery ward of Peoples Medical College Hospital where she is admitted for treatment, here on Wednesday, the woman from Ghanwar Chandio Mohalla, Moro, said she could identify two of the men who had assaulted her, but Moro police would not register the FIR, and has asked the higher authorities to provide her protection and take against the police and the culprits.

RALLY: Employees of PTCL Nawabshah took out a rally here on Wednesday in favour of the PTCL employees union for winning the referendum. Led by Basheer Daudpoto, Ashiq Kaleri and Akhtar Rind, the rally moved all around the city on motorcycles and cars, carrying flags and placards of their chairman Zulfiqar Sangi.

SUICIDE: A youth, Zahid Asghar Siyal, 20, an operation theatre technician at a private medical centre here committed suicide by hanging himself in his house due to personal problems in Doulat Colony on Wednesday.