Tenants clash with police as over 60 shops sealed in Larkana
LARKANA: The district administration sealed more than 60 shops located along the New Bus Stand here on Friday, triggering scuffles between police and club-wielding shopkeepers.
The Larkana Municipal Corporation has decided to hand over the bus stand to the Sindh government for the construction of a Peoples Bus Service (PBS) terminal and issued eviction notices to 140 tenants (shopkeepers), who had been resisting the decision for over a couple of weeks.
Mayor Anwar Luhar had earlier told reporters that the shops would be got evacuated and demolished to facilitate execution of the Rs200m project.
During the operation, tension escalated as agitating shopkeepers and residents wielding sticks confronted the police. The traders subsequently blocked the main road of the New Bus Stand, set old tyres on fire and staged a sit-in protest while raising slogans against the administration. Minor damages were also reported at the bus stand during the standoff. The road blockade caused traffic to come to a complete halt in the area. The deputy commissioner later summoned the shopkeepers and transporters for talks.
The sealing operation was carried out by Larkana Assistant Commissioner Raja Qureshi, along with the chief municipal officer of Larkana, accompanied by police personnel, who sealed more than 60 commercial shops situated on the main road of the New Bus Terminal.
In 2010, then taluka Nazim Qurban Abbasi had allotted 800 shops to traders at the New Bus Stand, said Transport Union President Javed Ali Mithani, along with Bahadur Khan Jalbani, Ali Hassan Kaheri, Ali Anwar Abbasi, Niaz Hussain Khoso, Jafar Ali Sangi, Rabeel Ali Jatoi, Khan Muhammad Rind and others while speaking to reporters at the protest site.
They said they run transport businesses, auto shops, garages and other businesses from these shops to support their families, and that they regularly pay monthly rent. Despite this, they said, the assistant commissioner and chief municipal officer, backed by police, sealed more than 60 of their shops, which they called a grave injustice.
The protesters said thousands of families depend on the livelihoods earned by workers at the New Bus Stop, and that demolition of the shops would leave thousands of households without means of survival.
They demanded that the decision to demolish the shops be reversed to save thousands of workers from unemployment, warning that otherwise they would expand the scope of their protest.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Tariq Manzoor Chandio summoned the shopkeepers and transporters for negotiations, following which the protesters called off their sit-in.
Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2026
