DADU, Oct 4: Police cordoned off the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar and kept its gates closed for six hours on Monday, prompting a reaction from the devotees of the Sufi saint.

The gates remained closed from 8am to 2pm as government officials waited for the arrival of Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad who was scheduled to inaugurate the Urs by laying a floral wreath on the tomb of the Qalandar.

The continued closure of the gate irked the devotees who wanted to visit the tomb. A large number of people tried to force through the gate but police used batons to disperse them. About 20 devotees were injured.

The enraged devotees held a protest demonstration outside the shrine, demanding permission to enter the shrine. To prevent the situation from deteriorating further, provincial secretary of Auqaf and religious affairs Mohammad Hashim Leghari inaugurated the Urs and then the devotees were allowed to enter the shrine.

Half an hour later, Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Jatoi reached Sehwan and inaugurated the Urs again. The secretary of Auqaf said that the governor had cancelled his programme to inaugurate the Urs due to rain.

ACCIDENT: Thirty devotees of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar were injured when a coach overturned on the Indus Highway near Sehwan on Sunday night. Driver of the Al-Makkah coach coming from Karachi lost control of the vehicle at Gharhi Mori and the bus overturned.

Those injured were taken to the Sehwan taluka hospital. They included Mohammad Rafiq, Qadeer, Zainab, Ms Shamshad, Gulab, Asif, Habibur Rehman, Abdul Sattar, Habibullah, Basheer Ahmed, Mohammad Siddiq, Inamul Haq, Rana, Akhtar, Munir and Hussain.

Our Sukkur Correspodent adds: About 18 passengers including women and children were injured after a bus overturned on the National Highway near Sadhuja in the Moro area on Monday.

When the bus, coming to Sehwan from Punjab, reached near Sadhuja, its tie-rod broke and resultantly it overturned. Those injured were Shoukat Qureshi, Azizan Begum, Iqbal Malik, Tariq Chohan, Nazir Ali Qureshi, Nasrullah, Rizwan, Shahbaz, Saleem, Ashraf, Majeed, Yaseen, Ashfaq, Zulfiqar, Israr, Mohammad Sharif, Nida Bibi and Nek Mohammad. They were shifted to a Moro hospital.