Followers commemorate 75th death anniversary of Suriya Badshah

No public holiday was declared on March 20 this year, to the dismay of supporters

HYDERABAD: The spiritual followers of the Hurr Jamaat, supporters of Pakistan Muslim League - Functional and a cross-section of society commemorated the 75th death anniversary of Pir Pagara Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi on Tuesday. Rallies, demonstration and events were organised in Hyderabad, Sanghar, Umerkot, Shahdadpur, Larkana, Khairpur, Badin, Naushero Feroz and other districts to pay tribute to Pagara, popularly known as Suriya Badshah.

The Pakistan Peoples Party's Sindh government drew supporters’ ire and criticism for not declaring a public holiday on March 20. This is despite the fact that the Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution last week in this regard.

"Pir Pagara owned Sindh as his motherland. He sacrificed his life to protect his motherland from foreign occupation," said the historian and writer Atta Muhammad Bhambro.

After fighting battles with the British, Pagara was arrested, convicted by a military court and later sent to the gallows on March 20, 1943, at Central Jail, Hyderabad. His body was not handed over to his heirs or his followers and his burial place is still not known.



Bhambro recalled the slogans of 'watan ya kafan [motherland or coffin]’ and 'azadi ya maut [freedom or death]’ which Pagara had raised while leading the campaign. In 1942 the Sindh Assembly passed the Hurr Criminal Act which was followed by witch-hunting of the spiritual supporters of Pagara for several years. From 1930 to 1943, the spiritual leader served many jail terms in different prisons including in Dhaka, Madnapur, Poona, Ratnagri and Rajshahi in India and Bangladesh.

Speaking at a commemoration event in Sanghar district, Prof Qalandar Shah Lakyari praised Pagara for choosing a life of trouble and miseries and sacrificing luxuries as he spearheaded the movement for freedom. Lakyari, who is an educationist and former English language professor, deplored that the chairs set up for research on Pagara at two universities in Sindh are dormant. "The required academic research is not being carried out on how Pagara and his disciples fought for the motherland and what consequences they had to bear."

Prof Israr Alvi said Pagara did not accept the slavery of the British and launched a guerilla war against the empire. The other speakers demanded that the Hurr movement should be taught to students at schools and that a public holiday should be declared on March 20. "No educational institution is working to transfer knowledge about the Hurr movement and its implications for the Subcontinent's freedom to the next generation," deplored Asad Jamal Pali.