A face-off between the participants of 'Rawadari march', which also protested against construction of six new canals, and workers of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was averted in Hyderabad on Saturday by the police. The TLP workers were dispersed as they were heading straight towards the point where the participants of the march had gathered.
The march, which also demanded justice for Dr Shahnawaz Kumbharof Umerkot district, who was allegedly killed in police custody before desecration of his dead body, passed through the Sindh University's old campus and it ended outside the press club. Sindhu Nawaz Ghangro, one of the organisers, argued that under a conspiracy the Indus River is being snatched from Sindh.
But, Ghangro said, the people of Sindh are united for the Indus and for the religious tolerance in the province. "Under the green Pakistan initiative, a robbery is being executed on the river."
Ghangro deplored that the people responsible for custodial killing of Dr Kumbhar and for desecration of his dead body are still moving freely.
Chairman Human Rights Commission Asad Iqbal Butt lamented that Sindh is always subjected to injustice in the matter of water distribution. "Punjab sold its three rivers to India which resulted in shortage of water in the Indus." He said the people charged in the FIR of Dr Kumbhar's killing and for the burning of his dead body should be brought to the book without any further delay.
Dr Niaz Kalani of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz blamed Pakistan People's Party and its provincial government for backing extremist elements in the province, contending that delay in making arrests in Dr Kumbhar's case testified to this charge against the PPP. "The centre or Punjab have no right to make decisions over the Indus."
The security remained on high alert during the march as the TLP had announced a simultaneous protest.
Anti-Canal Committee
The Anti-Canals Action Committee, comprising three mainstream farmers' lobbying groups, also staged a sit-in protest outside Hyderabad press club on Saturday, denouncing the plan to construct new canals on the Indus. The committee's head Syed Meeran Muhammad Shah, who is also president of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, pointed out that already instead of water dust is flying over the river but the federal government wants to deprive Sindh of its share of water.
He invited PPP's Chairman MNA Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to join the protesting farmers to tell the center in one voice that the new canals are unacceptable.
Syed Mahmood Nawaz Shah, head of Sindh Abadgar Board, asserted that the farmers have taken to the streets to save Pakistan and to save Sindh from ill planned decisions of the incumbent government.
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