KARACHI, Nov 30: Although Karachi remained by and large unaffected by a strike call given by the Sindh Bachayo Committee (SBC), life in the rest of Sindh came to a complete standstill except for Hyderabad where a partial strike was observed on Friday.

Sporadic incidents of violence relating to the strike were reported in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sanghar but the overall situation across Sindh remained peaceful.

The call for the protest was given to force the government to repeal the Sindh People’s Local Government Act, 2012, condemn the alleged insulting remarks by some Pakistan People’s Party leaders against PML-F legislators during the Nov 15 deliberations of the Sindh Assembly, and express reservations over the recent Lahore High Court verdict favouring construction of the Kalabagh dam.

In Sanghar district, a complete shutterdown was observed in response to the strike call. No vehicular traffic was seen moving on roads across the district from dawn to dusk.

More than 10 people were wounded when a convoy of vehicles moving with a PML-F rally came under a gun attack at Chodagi bus stop in Shahdadpur taluka. Participants in the rally, which originated from Shahpur Chakar, were about to reach their destination in Shahdadpur when the convoy was attacked with stones and firearms, one of the victims, Dodo Unnar, son of Ghulam Muhammad Unnar — Khalifa of Pir Pagara — told Dawn.

“It was a preplanned ambush,” he said, claiming that the assailants had taken positions on rooftops of the rally route and attacked the convoy when it passed by. He alleged that the attackers were PPP men.

Soon after the attack, PML-F activists and supporters held a sit-in around a burnt car at the scene and pelted a police mobile van with stones, causing injuries to a couple of policemen.

SSP Muhammad Ali Baloch, however, denied use of firearms in the attack, saying that five people were wounded when the rally participants were attacked with stones.

The main rally taken out in Sanghar was led by MPA Ali Ghulam Nizamani and some local SBC leaders while a former MPA, Mahi Khan Wassan, along with the party’s district president Muhammad Bux Khaskheli led another rally in Shahdadpur. Smaller rallies were also taken out in all other towns of the district.

Hyderabad, which reverberated with gunfire on Thursday night, observed a partial strike as most shops, business establishments, commercial centres and educational institutions remained shut owing to unavailability of public transport. Private vehicles also did not ply in many areas while fuel pumps in Qasimabad did not open in the morning.

An impact of the strike was not felt as all main bazaars and markets in the city observe Friday as the weekly holiday.

The driver and cleaner of a long vehicle (a container-mounted truck) received minor wounds when it was torched and partially damaged near Teen Mori on the National Highway within the remit of the Hatri police station in a strike-related incident.

Activists trying to force some shopkeepers to pull down the shutters attacked three shops at Haider Chowk and damaged their fixtures, furniture and glasses. Police picked up seven suspects after the attack.

Our correspondents in Sukkur, Khairpur, Larkana, Nawabshah, Naushahro Feroze, Dadu, Shikarpur, Thatta, Badin, Umerkot, Tharparkar and Mirpurkhas districts reported that a complete shutterdown was observed and vehicular traffic remained off the road and all educational institutions and business establishments stayed closed throughout the day in all these districts in response to the strike call.

Protest rallies were taken out and sit-ins were staged in almost all towns of the districts.

The protests were organised by Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Sindh United Party, Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Awami Tehreek, Sindh Hari Committee, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Bashir, Awami Jamhoori Party, National People’s Party and Sunni Tehreek.

There were reports that police picked up activists of various parties to maintain peace during the strike. Most of the detainees were released in the evening.

Jeay Sindh Tehreek, meanwhile, started a ‘long march’ against the new LG law and what it described as ‘a conspiracy to divide and destroy Sindh’.

Several hundred JST activists led by Dr Safdar Sarki started the long march from Shaheed Allah Bux Park in Jacobabad on Friday.

It was announced that the 30-day march would end in Karachi.

Speaking to the marchers, Dr Sarki claimed that non-Sindhis had grabbed Sindh’s soil and natural resources and made Sindhis their slaves.

“Sindhis is Karachi and other major cities were being killed while people of smaller towns and villages had been left at the mercy of dacoits, feudal lords and the elite,” he remarked. He vowed to liberate the Sindh people from all such elements.

Later, the marchers Jacobabad district for Humayun Sharif in Shikarpur district for an overnight stay.