Sindhis raise the pitch for independent Sindhudesh through April protests

Sindhi organisations are commemorating April as a memorial month for nationalists who spent their lives fighting for an independent Sindh. Every year April 25 is observed as the death anniversary of GM Syed who had founded and propelled the Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement in 1972 after observing human rights abuses by Pakistan.

Recently, the Pakistan Darawer itehad, also known as the Pakistan Dravidian Alliance, protested in front of the Sindh Assembly. Hundreds of Hindus gathered outside the Sindh legislature to register their complaints with Pakistani politicians over the forced abduction of children, religion conversions of minor girls and injustice meted out to Hindus under the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) regime.

It is believed that almost every day minor Hindu girls are abducted and married off to Muslim men against their wishes in various parts of Sindh.

The protests are being organised in the US also.

Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement (JSFM) leader, Zafar Sahito said in a press statement that the Sindhi people will organise gatherings and meetings in Sindh as well as in Houston, the US, to pay tribute to Sindhi freedom fighters. He added that the two main events related to the 28th death anniversary of GM Syed will be organised at his birthplace in Sann, Sindh, on 25th April followed by another one on 29th April in Houston, USA.

With various Sindhi organisations espousing for separation of Sindh from an Islamist Pakistan, protests and demonstrations have been staged in various parts of the province all through April against lack of security for religious and ethnic minorities.

Highlighting the abuse of ‘enforced disappearances’, Sindhi leader Sohail Sindhi remembered Sarai Qurban Khawar, Rooplo Choliani and Noorullah Tanio – three nationalists of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) who were reportedly killed and burnt by Pakistani agencies in 2014. Sindh had erupted into riots after the charred bodies of the political leaders were found.

#JSFM Korangi #Karachi
On the Central Call of Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement @JSFMOfficialOrg JSFM,
Workers of JSFM paid homage to the National martyrs who were martyred in the month of April with the National Anthem of Sindhudesh, Shaheed Maharaja Dahir, Shaheed Bashir Khan… pic.twitter.com/tNJAiVHYFt

— Sohail Sindhi (@sohailabro81) April 13, 2023

Last month, the World Sindhi Congress (WSC) had highlighted before the 52nd session of the UNHRC in Geneva how Pakistan has been carrying out extrajudicial killings, torture of disappeared people, persecution of religious minorities and persecution of Hindus. The WSC also narrated how the masses are still suffering from poverty, disease and displacement caused by floods in 2022 as humanitarian aid was not distributed by Pakistan.

Earlier in February this year, it had submitted a petition to the British government against the epidemic of enforced disappearances in Pakistan.

Sindhis are also protesting against the forceful encroachment of their resources and the dilution of their ethnic population by resettling people from different parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Sahito said: “Nearly 70 million Sindhi people don’t want to live with Pakistan anymore because our history, culture and identity is totally different from Islamist Pakistan. We Sindhi are secular people while Pakistan promotes Islamist radicalism. We believe in prosperity and betterment of humanity, for us religion is not a state matter”.

Also read: Violence breaks out after Pakistan opens fire on Sindh nationalists