In the upcoming United Nations 77th General Assembly Session scheduled from September 13 in New York, the Sindh Foundation will hold a week-long hunger strike to urge the UN to appoint a Special Envoy to probe appalling human rights abuse and persecution in the southern province of Pakistan.
The ‘Sindh Hunger Strike’ would coincide with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s address to the General Assembly session next week.
The protest will be led by Sufi Munawar Laghari and appeals to the UN to listen to the miseries, sorrows, agony and pains of Sindhis.
Sufi Laghari, the Executive Director of Washington, DC, based Sindhi Foundation, presently living in exile in the United States lament that since the people of Sindh demand the right to self-determination, they are persecuted, face atrocities and the security agencies commits a textbook case of ethnic cleansing.
The untold stories of victims of enforced disappearances and torture have never before taken seriously by western countries and international organisations, including the United Nations.
The Sindh nationalist in Pakistan argues that few human development, infrastructure development and economic development programme have been initiated by Islamabad.
The “man-made” devastating floods in Sindh, Balochistan and the Seraiki-speaking region in Pakistan are facing the worst ever disaster in living history. This unprecedented flood and devastation is a glaring example of underdevelopment in the region.
Sufi Laghari urged the international donor community including the United Nations and its member countries must not support corrupt and demoralised regime in Pakistan, instead directly send the aid to the Sindh people.
He also demanded that an international probe and audit of past aid provided to Pakistan government should be undertaken.
The nonviolent protest was intended to raise awareness of the international community including the UN and its member countries on the appalling human rights status and persecution committed by Pakistan authority, its security agencies and the successive governments against Sindh and Sindhi people.
He announced a list of grim human rights violations and atrocities against the people of Sindh spanned over the 75 years under Pakistan regime.
The majority of the Sindhis are apparently secular and dreams freedom of Sindh from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Five million freedom-loving Sindhis congregated in Karachi on March 23, 2014, demanding intervention of the international community for the independence of Sindh.
Sindh waged three wars for the freedom of Sindh during 1843-1857, 1890-1899 and 1940-1944. The last war although waged for the freedom of Sindh was carried out in understanding with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose by Pir Pagaro Soriah Badishah, Syed Shbghatullah Shah.
Present Sindh has a five thousand years history dating back to Indus Valley Civilisation in 3300 BCE. “They just cannot sacrifice Sindh’s thousands of years of nationhood over the nascent 75 years of Pakistan,” said Sufi Laghari.
The Petition covered the human rights abuses such as enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of Sindhi nationalists and political dissidents at the hand of the Pakistani military and its security agencies, forced conversion of young Sindhi Hindu girls into Islam, and colonisation of Sindh by neighbouring Punjab elites are the crucial issues mentioned in the petition.
Meanwhile, acclaimed Professor Noam Chomsky, America’s world-renowned cognitive scientist, philosopher, linguist, and social and political critic has extended his support to the Sindh Hunger Strike in front of the UN and is a signatory of the petition for the rights of Sindh to self-determination.
Saleem Samad, is an independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleemsamad@hotmail.com>; Twitter @saleemsamad
