HYDERABAD, Jan 13: Activists of the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party held a rally outside the press club on Thursday to protest against the proposed division of Hyderabad district.

They took out a procession from the City Gate Hotel and after marching through the main roads gathered outside the press club. The protesters carried banners, placards and party flags.

The STPP leaders condemned division of the district and vowed to resist such a move. Speaking on the occasion, the party leader Haider Shahani said the STPP was not against Urdu-speaking people of Hyderabad but the government was dividing the city on ethnic lines under a conspiracy.

He criticized the duplicity of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement which on the one hand was talking about friendly relations between Sindhis and Urdu-speaking people and on the other hand it was trying to divide the city on the ethnic basis. Mr Shahani said if the district was divided the people would suffer irreparable losses.

SELF-IMMOLATION ATTEMPT: Police on Thursday foiled a self-immolation attempt by the president of the Sindh People's Youth, Hala city, Javed Ahmed, who tried to torch himself outside the press club in protest against the division of Hyderabad.

The SPY activists had held a rally outside the press club in protest against the proposed division of the Hyderabad district. Speaking on the occasion, Javed Shaikh, Geedro Sindhi and Akbar Bhutto said Hyderabad was a historic city having several satellite towns.

They said if it was divided at the behest of an ethnic organization, Urdu-speaking people and traders would suffer the most. They demanded that the whole of the district should be included in a city government as proposed by District Nazim Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman.

At the end of the protest, the president of the People's Youth Hala, Javed Ahmed, sprinkled petrol on his clothes to commit self-immolation but before he could put a torch to his clothes, police pounced upon him.