Civil society, political workers call for end to ‘extrajudicial killings’

Protest against killing of Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz Ghotki president Zakir Bozdar

Civil society and political activists organised a protest in Karachi on Sunday against the killing of Sindhi nationalist worker Zakir Bozdar in Ghotki, calling for an end to the trend of “extrajudicial killings” in the country.

Prominent among those who gathered outside the Karachi Press Club were Asad Iqbal Butt, Sindh vice-chairman for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP); Nasir Mansoor, deputy general secretary for the National Trade Union Federation; Elahi Bakhsh Bikak, Karachi division leader for the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz; civil society activist Naghma Iqtidar and labour rights activist Zehra Khan.

They demanded that the government intervene to end the trend of killing people without putting them through the due legal process.

Thirty-year-old Bozdar was Ghotki president for the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz, a proscribed Sindhi nationalist group.

His family claimed a law enforcement agency had picked him up on December 3 during a raid on some houses in the Mathelo Moomal Ji Mari village. His body was found near a taxi stand in Ghotki on Saturday.

Asad Iqbal Butt of the HRCP said the government should put an end to “abductions” and “extrajudicial killings” of activists of political parties.

“If someone has committed a crime, he or she should be treated in accordance with the law and the courts should decide their cases,” he said, adding that “extrajudicial killings” were giving a rise to a sense of insecurity among people.