Note HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS.
Hundreds of thousands attend JSQM ‘Freedom March’
* Demonstrators denounce Pakistan Resolution of 1940 and chant slogans in favour of ‘Sindhu Desh’
By Asghar Azad
KARACHI: Hundreds of thousands of leaders, activists and supporters of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) brought out the ‘Freedom March’ from Numaish Chowrangi to Tibet Centre here on Friday, denouncing the Pakistan Resolution of 1940 and chanting slogans in favour of ‘Sindhu Desh’.
Dozens of processions arrived late Friday night outsidethe residence of JSQM Chairman Bashir Khan Qureshi in Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Karachi.
Welcome camps were set up in various areas of the city to guide processions and participants coming from other parts of Sindh. The camps were set up at Tool Plaza, Supper Highway, Kathore Bridge, Sasui Tool Palza, Razaq Abad, Bhens Colony, Malir Halt, Natha Khan, Drigh Road, Karsaaz, Hassan Square, Nipa Chowrangi, Sohrab Goth, Safoora Chowrangi, Johar Chowarngi and Nursery.
The main rally was taken out from Gulshan-e-Hadeed, which was led by party leaders Qureshi, Asif Baladi, Sagar Hanif Burrdi and Dr Niaz Kalani. It arrived at Numaish Chowrangi and joined the ‘Freedom March’.
The people were spread from Peoples’ Secretariat Chowrangi to Tibet Centre on both sides of MA Jinnah Road peacefully. It was second consecutive year that the party organised the ‘Freedom March’.
Hundreds of processions were taken out from different cities and towns of Sindh including Larkana, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Mirpurkhas, Thatta, Badin, Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Tharparker, Mithi, Jhudo, Sanghar, Khairpur, KN Shah, Dadu, Faizganj, Kumb, Naushehro Feroze, Moro, Kandiaro, Gambat, Ranipur, Shahdadkot, Thari Mirwah, Qamber, Shaheed Benazirabad, Daour, Umerkot, Qazi Ahmad, Hala, Saeed Abad, Mehar, Pir Jo Goth, Karoondi, Padedan, Bhirya Road, Moro and Sakrand.
Strict security arrangements were made for the march as all the entrances and exist points were closed with buses, water tankers and other barriers from Guro Mander toTibet Centre on MA Jinnah Road. Hundreds of policemen, including Rangers and other law enforcement personnel performed security duty.
Addressing the participants, Qureshi said that Sindh had voluntarily merged itself into the country under 1940’s Pakistan Resolution but now its people were disowning it as the resolution had failed to protect rights and autonomy of the province during last 65 years. “We Sindhis now disown the Pakistan Resolution, say it good bye and demand independence of Sindh according to historical status”, he said.
The Sindhi nationalist leader announced that his party accepted Urdu speaking population in Sindh during the partition and considered them part of Sindh, adding, the Urdu speaking population would have to take steps for Sindh and its people sincerely and would prove their attachment with Sindh.
“We Sindhis made remarkable progress for establishing harmonized socioeconomic system linked with agriculture and overcome numerous obstacles in their way to prosperity with the passage of time”, Qureshi said.
The JSQM chief further said that the Pakistan Resolution was tabled in Sindh Assembly on March 23, 1940 that stated that a separate state would be establish in Muslim majority areas. He said their leader GM Syed had demanded Pakistan while tabling that resolution in the Sindh Assembly.
Qureshi said, “The establishment and rulers, especially Punjab who ruled the country from the day first have never complied with the resolution.” He said a pocket of Muslim League leaders had devised a conspiracy at a meeting of All India Muslim League’s working session just before one year of establishment of Pakistan and entitled it ‘Pakistan will be a religious nation state that was totally against the Pakistan Resolution of 1940’. By this act the resolution broke before its completion.”
Qureshi said that Jeay Sindh Movement founder GM Syed had warned the international community at the Vienna convocation in 1952 about threats of religious extremism in this region, as saying that creating a state on the basis of religion would promote religious extremism and harm global peace.
Qureshi pointed out that Sindh was once the land of religious harmony, where Hindus and Muslims lived like brothers. He said that Sindh’s land was fertile owing to the Indus River and it was a junction of international trade, that was why foreign invaders attacked it several times, adding that Sindhis never had the psyche of invading anyone because of their rich social and cultural status, however, the Sindhis had boldly resisted the invaders.
Qureshi asked the Urdu speaking community to come forward and demand the rights of Sindh. We want to make clear to Urdu speaking people that we Sindhis are considering them as brethren and part of Sindhi nation.
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