Missing nationalists: STPP asks JSMM to stop armed struggle
The Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STPP) has urged the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), a banned nationalist party, to stop its armed struggle.
"I want to talk about this Shafi Burfat phenomenon," said STPP Chairperon Dr Qadir Magsi at a press conference on Wednesday. "If the state is showing no mercy towards our children, I appeal to Burfat to have mercy on our children. Don't hand our children over to killers."
Burfat is the JSMM founder and chairperson. He has been in hiding for the last 25 years. At least seven nationalist workers, who had been missing for a period of one to four months, were found dead in different parts of Sindh since November. Their bodies bore marks of torture and gunshots.
According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, around a dozen workers who were allegedly subjected to enforced disappearance are still missing. Magsi claimed some 40 nationalists have been killed in a similar manner during the last decade.
Magsi also appealed to the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Shareef to take notice of the enforced disappearance and killings of the nationalist workers.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2014.