Sindh turns out to express solidarity with Kashmir

Demonstrations across the province echo calls for international community to take notice of atrocities

HYDERABAD/ KARACHI: People from across Sindh poured out on the streets on Wednesday, showing solidarity with the people of Kashmir and reiterating their resolve to continue their support for the valley's freedom struggle in thousands of events and demonstration held across the province.

Large and small rallies, organised by government officials, political and religious parties, educationists, students, traders, unions and people from all walks of life, were taken out in every district of the province. The participants - men, women and children, vented their anger at India and its atrocious policies, both in Kashmir and against Muslims in the rest of the country.

'War crimes'

Stating that the 'butcher of Gujrat' - Modi - had unleashed genocide in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK), Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah called for him to be charged with war crimes in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Shah was addressing a rally taken out from Kashmir Road to Mazar-e-Quaid, organised by the Sindh government to express solidarity with the people of the occupied valley. The chief minister and Sindh Governor Imran Ismail led the rally, accompanied by a marching band.

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"Your (Modi's) hands are stained with the blood of innocent Kashmiris," declared Shah. "One day, you will have to face cases for war crimes in the ICJ." He urged the international community, human rights watchdogs and individuals to raise their voices on the matter and wake the world up from its slumber.

The governor concurred that it was the moral and social responsibility of the international community to speak up for the Kashmiri people's right of self-determination. "No power in the world can deprive them of this right," said Ismail, adding, "The dream of lasting peace in the region can never materialise without resolving the Kashmir issue."

At another rally, Ismail said optimistically, "We observe Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5; soon we will be observing Kashmir Independence Day on this date."

'Deplorable silence'

Addressing a seminar for Kashmir Day at Khaliq Dina Hall, Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar asked, "How long will the world tolerate the bloodshed, tyranny and injustice inflicted by the Indian army in Kashmir?"

Calling the silence maintained by other Muslim countries 'deplorable,' he said that no force could keep the matter from being resolved if Muslim countries stood in unity over it.

The Kashmir Solidarity Conference, held by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, supported the Kashmiri right of self-determination, condemning Indian oppression and demanding that the Indian armed forces call off their lockdown immediately.

"We believe that the solution to the Kashmir issue is hidden in a socially, economically and politically strong Pakistan," said party leaders at the conference. "Today, we want to make India acknowledge that Kashmir isn't a peripheral or territorial issue, but an incomplete agenda of the subcontinent's division."

The sun of freedom

Separately, Sindh Inspector General of Police Dr Kaleem Imam said that a day will surely come when tyranny perishes while the truth will triumph. "The day is not far away when the Kashmiris will witness the sun of independence rising."

Echoing these sentiments in Hyderabad, former MNA Sahibzada Abul Khair Muhammad Zubair, the head of Milli Yakjahti Council, said, "the sun of freedom will soon dawn upon Kashmir."

The core issue

"Kashmir is the core territorial, ideological and political issue between Pakistan and India which needs to be settled according to the UN resolutions," said a statement issued by the Sindh High Court Bar Association, meanwhile, as the legal fraternity in Hyderabad condemned the lockdown in Kashmir and asked the international community to take notice of the human rights violations.

Hyderabad commissioner Muhammad Abbass Baloch, who led a rally from Shahbaz Building to the GPO, said that world powers should realise their responsibility to resolve the simmering conflict between the South Asian neighbours.

"The sufferings of the people of occupied Kashmir have further strengthened their bond with Pakistanis," claimed Hyderabad mayor Syed Tayyab Hussain.

Sukkur deputy commissioner Rana Adeel, meanwhile, said during a rally that the Kashmiri struggle predated the independence of Pakistan. "The Dogra dynasty, too, had unleashed terror on Kashmiris [during the British Raj]."

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In Nawabshah, Jamaat-e-Islami provincial leader Muhammad Hussain Mehnati, blamed the federal government and Prime Minister Imran Khan for taking a weak position on the Kashmir issue.

A show of support

Markets, bazaars and shopping centres remained closed, while educational institutions and public and private offices arranged programmes to call for Kashmiri liberation and highlight the brutality of the Indian government in IOK.

In Karachi and Sukkur, government officials arranged marathons for solidarity. Meanwhile, in Larkana and Tharparkar districts, minority communities also took to the streets to denounce the Indian occupation and savagery in Kashmir, while also suspending trade activity in Tharparkar to show solidarity. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2020.