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Friday March 29, 2024

Police beat back farmers protesting for increase in sugarcane price

By our correspondents
December 12, 2017

KARACHI: Police used tear gas, water cannons and batons to beat back hundreds of farmers who intended to march on the Bilawal House on Monday as part of a protest to demand an increase in the procurement price of sugar cane.

On November 29 Sindh Agriculture Minister Suhail Siyal had announced that the government had fixed the sugar cane procurement price at Rs182 per 40 kilograms for the present crushing season.

On Monday nearly 800 growers from various parts of the province gathered at Boat Basin in Clifton to record their protest against the procurement price.

From the roundabout, they blocked both tracks leading towards the Bilawal House, a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) office, for all types of vehicles. Carrying banners and placards, they shouted slogans against the Sindh government and demanded increasing the procurement price.

Because of the protesters, the traffic police were forced to close both tracks leading towards the Bilawal House from the Boat Basin roundabout for all types of traffic, diverting all vehicles from Bilawal House to Do Talwar and from Boat Basin to Submarine Chowrangi.

“Police held a dialogue with the protesters to persuade them to clear the roads, but the farmers refused to budge,” said Clifton SP Dr Assad Malhi. “I met with a delegation of growers and warned them to end their protest, as the government had imposed Section 144 in the locality.” SP Malhi said the protesters ignored him and tried to march on the Bilawal House, a declared red zone, adding that the police initially used batons and tear gas to disperse the farmers, but they regrouped before long.

He said that when the protesters tried to move towards the Bilawal House again, police used water cannons to make them retreat and detained 80 of the demonstrators, adding that two policemen suffered minor injuries during the incident. Police took the detainees to the Boat Basin police station.

South SSP Javed Akbar Riaz said the police had later cleared both tracks of the protesters and opened them for traffic, adding that the detainees were released on the home minister’s directives.

‘Let them all go’

Addressing a news conference at his office, Siyal, who is also the home minister, ordered releasing all the detained farmers, claiming that the protesters who had gathered in Clifton also included Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) activists.

He said a “grave conspiracy” had been hatched to disturb law and order near the Bilawal House, as not everyone participating in the protest was a representative of the province’s sugar cane growers.

The minister said sugar mills had been facing difficulties because sugar cane grown in Punjab had reached Sindh owing to much lower rate of the plant in the neighbouring province.