KARACHI, 11 June — Two people were killed and several others were injured when police opened fire during a protest against water shortages in the southern Sindh province, witnesses said.

Police fired at supporters as they attempted to block a major highway between the southern province of Sindh and central Punjab province, police said.

“I have received reports that one man was killed and some others have been wounded in sporadic clashes with the police near Dadu district,” police chief of Sukkur city Zafarullah Farooqi told AFP.

Police said another person died in hospital later in the evening.

Police also fired tear gas shells to restore order and arrested around 500 potential miscreants, he said. “We have not allowed the protesters to block the highway.”

Pakistan has been hit by a severe drought in recent months which has left the country’s major dams virtually empty. Plans to build more dams have been bogged down in inter-provincial bickering.

The protesters belonged to the ethnic-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Sindhi nationalist group Jeay Sindh Mahaz.

Meanwhile, the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, a rival faction of Altaf Hussain’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement, has moved a court against Musharraf’s city government plan scheduled to be unveiled  on Aug.14.

In a petititon filed in the Sindh high court, the Haqiqi group, as it is called, said the plan if implemented would create differences among ethnic communities. The plan has drawn flak from almost all political parties.