DADU, Aug 10: A large number of villagers and political activists held a demonstration outside the press club here on Tuesday to protest against oil and gas exploration company BHP for denying local candidates jobs and landlords land compensation.

Speaking on the occasion, Jamiat Ulema Pakistan district president Hafiz Mohammad Amin Jamali said that the officials of the Zamzama camp of the company had not paid land compensation to the landlords of Dadu and Johi talukas.

He said that the company was extracting oil and gas in huge quantity from their land but they had not been paid land compensation according to the agreement. Landlord Khamiso Khan Panhwar said that the company had established a camp on his 32 acres near the MNV drain in Johi taluka about eight years back but he had been denied compensation.

Pakistan People's Party (SB) leader Mir Hassan Jamali said that people from Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan had been recruited by the BHP but local people had been neglected by it.

He said that many qualified and educated local people approached the officials of the BHP but they were refused jobs. He warned that a protest campaign would be launched against the officials of BHP throughout Sindh if they did not change their policies. Later, a group of protesters observed a token hunger strike.

DOCTOR INJURED: Six armed men shot at and injured taluka health officer Dr Taik Chand in the Thana Bula Khan area on Tuesday. He was taken to Aga Khan Hospital, Karachi, in serious condition.

Dadu District Nazim Malik Asad Sikandar alleged that an influential person of Thana Bula Khan had injured Dr Taik Chand over a land dispute. He said that on Monday, the same accused had set ablaze a ring machine worth Rs10 million in Thana Ahmed Khan. He said that due to police negligence, Dr Taik Chand was attacked and the police had not taken any action against the accused as yet.

OUR HYDERABAD CORRESPONDENT ADDS: A police source claimed that Dr Taik Chand, a close associate of the nazim, had received five bullets in the attack.

DEMONSTRATION: A large number of candidates for the posts of teachers under the Sindh Middle School Project held a demonstration here on Tuesday to protest against delay in issuance of their posting orders.

They said that they had passed written test in November 2002, cleared interviews in August 2004 and received job offer letters but posting orders had not been issued to them as yet.