Rally in memory of '67 student movement baton-charged

Sindh University students protest against canals project; nationalist leaders denounce police brutality

HYDERABAD:

It seems that the authorities in Jamshoro district tried to rejuvenate the spirit of the March 4, 1967, students' movement which had lent its weight to the political movement against the Ayub Khan's One Unit System.

As thousands of students of the Sindh University gathered at the campus for a rally to mark the day's 58th anniversary on Tuesday, with opposition to the six new canals on the Indus River being their rallying cry, the police resorted to a heavy-handed response.

The student's rally met with teargas shelling, baton charge and arrests as it crossed the entrance gate of the SU and reached the Indus Highway's stretch. The police blocked both the gated entrances of the SU to prevent the students from coming to the highway but the students resisted and managed to get on that road.

A clash, consequently, occurred on the road adjacent to the Institute of Sindhology with the police first employing baton charge and later teargas shelling, following by rounding up the rally's participants, while the students responding by pelting stones.

Some students reportedly sustained injuries and at least 15 were detained, triggering a chorus of criticism by the nationalist parties' leadership and other parties. Police claimed many cops were injured due to stone pelting by the students.

In reaction the students took recourse to a sit-in protest on the highway and kept the road blocked until the detained students were released in the evening.

DSP Kotri Shahnawaz Jokhio and Jamshoro police station SHO Khair Muhammad Mallah led hundreds of baton wielding cops. Wajid Khaskheli, Zulfiqar Thebo and other students who led the protest said the rally was meant to mark the day and to peacefully register the students' disapproval of the six canals project which will turn Sindh into a barren land. They blamed the police for unnecessarily obstructing them and for employing brute force on unarmed students. "Police tried to turn the peaceful protest violent by provoking the students," said a female student, who participated in the sit-in. She questioned why would the students attack cops as it is being alleged.

A similar event was scheduled in Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam in Hyderabad, but it also stood scuttled. The police raided residence of the chief guest, writer Taj Joyo, to detain him but the attempt was foiled due to resistance by the local people.

The leaders of Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party Dr Qadir Magsi, Qaumi Awami Tehreek Ayaz Latif Palijo, Jeay Sindh Mahaz's Riaz Chandio, JSQM's Dr Niaz Kalani and others condemned the police crackdown. "The PPP's Sindh government and the police prove every other day that they aren't friends but foes of Sindh," said Palijo in a statement.