PML-F calls for revocation of British era Hur Criminal Act

Party leaders remember Pir Pagara Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi on his 74th death anniversary

HYDERABAD: At a commemorative event marking the 74th death anniversary of Pir Pagara Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi, the speakers called for abolishing the British era law that had outlawed the Hurs, the spiritual followers of Pagara.

The speakers also demanded reanimating the moribund Sooriah Badshah chairs, named after the appellation of Pagara, at Sindh University and Shah Abdul Latif University. The event was organised at Sindh Museum's auditorium by Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) on Sunday.

"I am really sad to see that the law that the English government got passed within an hour is still in place even after more than seven decades," deplored Kashif Nizamani, PML-F's chief organiser.



The Sindh Assembly enacted the Hur Criminal Act in 1942 to proscribe the Hur movement, whose armed insurgency had perturbed the British rulers. Led by Sooriah Badshah, who raised the slogans 'watan ya kafan [motherland or coffin]' and 'azadi ya maut [freedom or death]', the Hurs staged a revolt against the British rule.

Despite the crackdown, the resistance movement persisted in central and lower Sindh. Rashdi faced incarcerations from 1930 to 1943, serving jail terms in different prisons, including Dhaka, Madnapur, Poona, Ratnagri and Rajshahi in India and Bangladesh.

In January, 1943, he was imprisoned in the central jail in Hyderabad where he was later executed after his conviction by a martial law court. Thousands of his supporters, both men and women, also faced imprisonment in the jails and suffered torture besides being killed or injured in the clashes and raids by the British army.



"In his [Rashdi's] youth, he sacrificed all the luxuries of life [offered to the feudal lords and spiritual leaders by the British] and chose the path of trouble and suffering and later accepted death," claimed Prof Syed Qalandar Shah Lakyari, a notable writer and educationist. He pointed out that chairs named after Rashdi are lying dormant at the two universities, emphasising the need to make them functional to conduct research about the historic Hur movement and Sooriah Badhshah.

MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbasi said the PML-F is organising many commemorative events this year to bring the historic leader and his movement into the limelight. "In the last nine years of the Pakistan Peoples Party's government we faced troubles. Our people were booked in fake cases. Many were jailed and killed. But our ideological supporters have withstood the miseries," she said.

Prof Hafiz Muhammad Yousuf Bhanbro accused the British of distorting the history of the Hur movement. Other speakers also addressed the commemoration.