Tag Archives: extra-constitutional killings

Human Rights, News, Pakistan, Politics, Sindh, Sindhi

Footprints: ‘Kill and dump’ in Sindh

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By Saher Baloch

Sarwech Ali Pirzado’s grave stands out in the ancestral Pirzado graveyard in Balhreji, Larkano district. A red Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) flag is spread over the grave. Another party flag flutters beside it. Known as ‘little Moscow’, Balhreji has seen many socialist and communist movements, evidence of which is found on the main entrance to the street where the graveyard is located. There is a plaque here in memory of “social reformer Muhib Hussain Pirzado”.

The area has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, as the venue where families from across Sindh receive the tortured bodies of their relatives — activists of Sindh’s nationalist parties who hailed largely from Larkano district.

Sitting on a charpoy in his modest home, Sarwech’s father Lutuf Pirzado wore an expression of resigned acceptance as he mentioned his son’s affiliation with the JSMM’s student wing, the Jeay Sindh Students Federation (JSSF). Himself an active member of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in the 1980s, Lutuf received 15 lashes in prison for wall-chalking and demanding the release of communist leader Jam Saqi.

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Balochistan, Human Rights, Life, Politics, Sindh, Sindhi

Bleeding Sindh

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By Ayesha Siddiqa

As Imran Khan and the PTI vociferously protest the death of their worker in Faisalabad, many mothers elsewhere in the country must be sitting lamenting their sons and wondering who will lock down the country and force the state to answer why their sons will not return. While we all got used to missing persons and tortured bodies in Balochistan, it’s odd to find Sindh becoming part of the same tragic cycle.

Death and dead bodies are not new to Sindh. Every decade since the 1980s, the province has bled for one reason or the other. But this current spate of killings seems to be a new pattern. It is almost as if Sindhi nationalism is being woken up. Interestingly, the six dead bodies found recently did not belong to violent nationalists. In fact, five out of the six were men who had moved on in life. Notwithstanding old associations with the JSMM, these people were not actively involved in any ‘anti-state’ activity or even in party politics.

In any case, one thought that from the state’s perspective, Sindh was not Balochistan. The province had been through this phase during the 1980s when people challenged the military regime and were killed for it. Like Balochistan, Sindh was politically vibrant. The Sindhi media and intelligentsia was politically active and educated people about issues in its own language. Fast-forward to the 2000s, things were manipulated and changed. Despite the media still being active, it has begun to behave and sound more like the media in the rest of the country. What the state couldn’t purchase or silence was bought over by influential dons.

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Human Rights, Life, News, Pakistan, Politics, Sindh, Sindhi

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP’s) alarm at missing men in Sindh turning up dead

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By HRCP

Lahore, December 5: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed grave alarm at the rapid rise in enforced disappearances in Sindh, with the victims turning up dead. Those taken away are young men, mainly political activists, picked up from various parts of the province in the last few months. Mutilated dead bodies of many of the victims have been found. HRCP demanded immediate steps to put an end to the ghastly trend and to bring the killers to justice.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Commission said: “HRCP has noted with great alarm increasing reports of enforced disappearance of citizens, mainly activists of nationalist political parties, in Sindh and their tortured bodies being found weeks or months later.

The victims include Shakeel Sindhi, a Sindh University student, was abducted from his house in Karachi on October 6 and his dead body was found on October 11. Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) activist Paryal Shah was abducted from a public transport bus headed from Dahrki to Kashmor on November 7. His dead body was found the same day from a village on the Sindh-Punjab border. The bullet-riddled body of Roshan Brohi, a resident of Larkana and a JSMM activist, was found in a gunny bag near Malir, Karachi, on November 12. He had been picked up on October 26. The dead body of SindhUniversity student and JSMM activist Asif Panhwar was found in a village of Larkana district on November 26. He had been shot several times. He had been picked up by security agencies from Jamshoro on August 15. On November 27, the bullet-riddled body of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) activist Waheed Lashari was found in a sewerage pond in Karachi’s Malir area. He had been abducted 29 days earlier from Qambar Shahdadkot, when he was travelling with his sister in a public transport van. Allah Wadio, a first year student, was abducted on August 13 from Karachi. On December 02 unidentified persons threw him in a critical condition near Hub Chowki. Police informed his parents who admitted him to Civil Hospital Karachi. He was reportedly picked up from there by security agencies’ personnel and on December 3 his dead body was found from Hyderabad Bypass.

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