JSQM-A long march ends with demand for missing persons’ release

The long march of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Araisar (JSQM-A) that started on February 14 from Bhit Shah, a town best known as the location of Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, finally reached the Karachi Press Club on Sunday.

Walking on foot, around two dozen activists of the Sindhi nationalist group, including two women, announced the end of the long march outside the press club by convening a public gathering there, where party leaders, including chief Dr Meer Alam Mari, and civil society activists spoke to them.

One among the marchers’ six key demands was that detained activists belonging to various nationalist parties, including the JSQM-A, should be either released or brought to court. Preventing and expelling “illegal migrants” who had come to the province after 1954, the abolition of the 1991 water accord and the allocation of the Indus River water according to the 1945 Sindh- Punjab agreement were other demands.

The speakers also called for eradicating religious militancy, protecting the religious minorities, especially the Hindu community, giving the ownership of all minerals and revenue resources to Sindh, and recognising the Sindhi language as a national language and enforcing it in all government departments, the judiciary and the private sector in the province.

The JSQM-A leaders discussed various issues, especially the enforced disappearances of Sindhi activists, and challenges to the native population from the influx of what they called “outsiders” into the province.

They called for respect for basic human rights, freedom of expression and the production of all ‘missing persons’ in court if they had committed any crime. They alleged many political workers and human rights activists had been whisked away, causing fear and unrest among people. The leaders also criticised the provincial government and the Pakistan Peoples Party for the rampant corruption, bad governance, lawlessness and other problems in the province, mainly for its failure to address public grievances. Leaders of various political parties, including the JSQM’s Bashir Qureshi faction and the Awami Workers Party, also attended the rally to show solidarity with the marchers.