Sindh: WSC Criticizes Ruthless Paramilitary Attacks on Political Activists
Photo courtesy of: Shabbir Siraj 2007 @ Wikipedia
Sindhi political activists and their relatives were targeted in a violent attack on Tuesday, 2 August 2016, by the hands of paramilitary forces [Rangers], together with state intelligence agencies and the police. The attackers enclosed their villages and entered their homes, beating and arresting several people. No one was spared from the violence. The World Sindhi Congress is shocked by the intensification of the abuses and believes it is part of a strategy to convert the Sindhis into a minority in their own homeland. In this context, support from the international community, human rights organizations and the UN is highly needed.
Below is an article published by the World Sindhi Congress:
A ruthless operation of paramilitary forces, Rangers, with close support from the state intelligence agencies and police has been unleashed against Sindhi political activists across numerous major and small towns of Sindh including Larkana, Warah, Balreji, Qambar, Shahdadkot and Kandkot. The information has been received that the Rangers isolated and encircled these towns and entered into hundreds of houses. Scores of Sindhi political activists or their relatives and elderly parents were beaten and arrested. During these operations the Rangers also beaten and humiliated women, children and elderly and trashed and destroyed the property. The population of these and other towns has been severely traumatized and frightened as a result of the level of violence perpetrated by the forces.
WSC strongly condemns the recent intensification in the ongoing onslaught of Pakistan security agencies against Sindhi political activists. WSC believes this ruthless operation is a strategic tool to preempt the Sindhi people’s struggle against state designs including CPEC, spread of religious extremism, robbing Sindh’s natural resources and wholesale immigration and settlement of people from outside Sindh to convert Sindhis into minority in their own motherland.
WSC request all Sindhi political parties and the liberal, secular and progressive forces on the ground to raise their voice to stop this inhumane operation. WSC will get in touch with the International Community, UN and international human rights organizations to request them to take immediate and effective action to stop these gross violations of human rights.
