HYDERABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) sector office in Tando Mohammad Khan was attacked late Wednesday night, as many districts in rural Sindh observed a strike on the call of Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party (STPP).
According to the MQM’s sector in charge, Muhammad Aslam Rajput, around 20 people attacked the party’s office. They held the police guards hostage while they ransacked the office and fired in the air. Rajput said that when they went to the police station to lodge a case but the SHO was not present so they came back.
The STPP had called a province-wide strike on Thursday after two of its activists and the daughter of another died on Wednesday in a clash with the MQM, and its office was set on fire.
The violence began after unidentified men fired at an empty commercial plot at Nasarpur Road in Tando Allahyar and lobbed grenades at it from rooftops.
A strike was observed in Hyderabad, Tharparkar, Sanghar, Tando Muhammad Khan, Badin, Shaheed Benazirabad, Thatta and other districts as well. Tando Allahyar was tense and Rangers and police were deployed to prevent more clashes. Shops and businesses largely remained closed in other districts as well. The victims were laid to rest in Gul Ghaibi Graveyard on Thursday. The STPP has called for seven days of mourning.
According to the STPP vice chairman, Haider Bux Shahani, 23 workers were injured in the clash. “Two of them are in serious condition,” he said at a press conference on Thursday. “Many have been shot.”
He criticised the police for arresting more than 200 STPP workers in the last two days. He alleged that MQM was stirring up violence in Tando Allahyar to fan ethnic riots. “It is a part of their conspiracy to show the international community that Sindhis and Urdu-speaking people can’t live together,” he said. “So they can carve out a Mohajir province from Sindh.”
He warned the MQM that the people of Sindh will go to any extreme to preserve the geographical sanctity of their motherland. “The borders are sacred and history testifies to this,” he said. “Millions of people of different nations have fought and sacrificed their lives for this cause and so will the Sindhis.”
But Shahani added that his party was not against the Urdu-speaking people. “Urdu-speaking people have as much right on Sindh as the Sindhis,” he said. “They are the children of this soil too. But please understand the divisive politics of MQM.”
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2012.
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its very sad,,..in tando muhammad khan sector ofice attacked by stp and other qoum parast parties...these qom parast parties are against of pakistan and there slogan sindhoo desh. tando muhammad khan is a city where all qoum parast parties when they want they can strike..now a days tando muhammad khan is to be strike city begin. all peace full people request to army that we want peace..urdu speaking and sindhi speaking all muslim and brother....this is not islam..
@Salman Orangiwala: Please ever think if you have a chance to comeout of ethinicty , why everyone has complains against MQM.
STPP must realize that attacking the ethnic minority in Interior Sindh would result in severe backlash in Karachi .STPP ahd already made lives of the Punjabi settlers of Interior Sindh miserable ,now they want to open up another front .This would be like playing with fire .
MQM is conspiring to bring ethnic violence in Sindh. They attacked office of STPP in rural Sindh. It shows that they are ready to begin ethnic war in order to gain their vested interests. Such divisive politics and ethnic hate based policies will fire back. It is request to all peaceloving Urdu speaking to keep away from MQM rhetoric and actions, because it will plunge whole province in ethnic violence.
More MQM, More violence