Tag: Sindhis

Categories
India News London News

Sindhis protest in London against abduction of minor girls in Pakistan

The march intended to demand the return and recovery of Priya, and also raised concern over the forced conversions of Sindhi Hindu girls and young women in Pakistan…reports Asian Lite News

Dissent against the case of the abduction of a minor Sindhi Hindu girl, Priya Kumari, who was abducted from Sindh province in Pakistan three years ago, resonated in London.

A Washington-based human rights body, the Sindhi Foundation and the local Sindhi community organised a long march on Friday from 10 Downing Street (the official residence of the British Prime Minister) to Pakistan’s High Commission in Lowndes Square to demand the return and recovery of Priya.

The march was followed by a memorandum presentation to UK officials, the Sindhi Foundation stated in a press statement.

Responding to the effort, the UK Prime Minister’s office appreciated the initiative for promoting human rights.

However, the same statement said that the Pakistani High Commission officials straightaway declined to receive the memorandum.

The march intended to demand the return and recovery of Priya, and also raised concern over the forced conversions of Sindhi Hindu girls and young women in Pakistan.

The walk was mostly attended by members of the Sindhi community living in the UK and US, the statement read.

The Executive Director of the Sindhi Foundation, Sufi Munawar Laghari and Razia Sultana Junejo a leading member of the Sindhi Foundation, presented the memorandum to the UK Prime Minister.

The memorandum to the Prime Minister included information about the atrocities committed against Sindhis in their native Sindh, including the case of Priya Kumari.

They requested the British PM’s support and urged them to raise their voice for the immediate release of the abducted minor Sindhi Hindu girls to their homes and stop forced conversions of young Sindhi Hindu girls and women.

An official of the Prime Minister’s office, while receiving the memorandum from Laghari and Junejo acknowledged their appreciation for the human rights they defended.

The protest walk for the recovery of abducted Priya Kumari was also dedicated to slain Sindhi journalist Nasrullah Gadani.

The walk continued through various streets of London and reached its culmination point at Pakistan’s High Commission building.

Speaking to the protesting members of the Sindhi community, Munawar Laghari said, “After occupying the mountains, islands, waters, forests, agricultural lands, cities and villages of Sindh, the Pakistani army has now turned their attention to the daughters of Sindh. They are being abducted and many of them were forcibly converted.”

Laghari further said, “The Pakistani apparatuses, including highly politicised police, have miserably failed to recover Pirya Kumari. We approached the gates of the Pakistani High Commission to hand over a memorandum to a Pakistani official whom we met at Pakistan’s High Commissioner but the official adamantly refused to receive the memorandum.” (ANI)

ALSO READ-Polls point to ‘electoral extinction’ for Tories

Categories
-Top News Asia News Politics

Sindhis Reject ‘Manipulated’ Digital Population Census

The speakers in the panel suggested that the only way left for the Sindhi people is to launch a political movement on the ground and on the international front to stop this grave injustice…reports Asian Lite News

Calling the digital census “digital fraud,” the World Sindhi Congress said that people have rejected it as this is based on fraud and manipulation in complete disregard of the truth and the legitimate interests of Sindhis.

In a seminar, held on August 21, the speakers discussed various aspects of digital census 2023 and its impacts and implications for Sindhi people, according to the statement released by World Sindhi Congress.

The panel included Naseer Memon, a renowned development professional, Khalique Junejo, Chairman Jeay Sindh Mahaz (J), Bakhshal Thalho, President Awami Workers Party, Inam Bhatti of Sindh United Party, Mumtaz Bukhari, a renowned journalist, Masroor Shah, President Awami Jamhori Party and Lakhu Luhana of World Sindhi Congress.

The speakers said that the population census process in Pakistan has always been riddled with inconsistencies and manipulation of the figures subservient to the demographic interests of the dominant nation and to the political and economic interests of the groups that the establishment wants to please for various reasons.

The fraud could be exposed if a reputable international firm forensically audits the data. The speakers said that Sindhi people have genuine concerns that the current census results will further accelerate the demographic engineering of Sindh.

The speakers in the panel suggested that the only way left for the Sindhi people is to launch a political movement on the ground and on the international front to stop this grave injustice that will severely undermine the political, economic, historical, and cultural rights of the Sindhi people. They also demanded that a new census under international observers should be carried out to bring credibility to the process and the results, the statement read.

Providing the historical context, the speakers said that demographic engineering in Sindh has always been a key objective of the rulers of Pakistan in order not to only grab its resources, lands and jobs but convert Sindhis into a minority in their own motherland to end their right to rule. The process started with the inception of Pakistan when 20 per cent of the Sindhi population was forced to leave. The engineering has continued since with tacit and implicit support and force and the situation is that Sindh has experienced the largest demographic shift not only in Pakistan but in the entire subcontinent since the partition.

The speakers said that the digital census is in fact a digital fraud. The terms of the reference were flawed, and the condition of the identity card was not included, even though it was inducted after the criticism, it was not made mandatory. It is all a manipulation of data, which is very easy to do if the data is digital.

Officially the census closed on May 16 and the official announced results showed the total Sindh population as 57.5 million and within it Karachi division as 19 million. However, the revised results on August 5 showed the population of Sindh reduced to 55.69 million and within it, Karachi’s population increased to 20.5 million. So, the population of divisions, except Karachi, was reduced by 3.3 million and Karachi was increased by 1.5 million.

The huge changes to the numbers are unexplained and incomprehensible.  Within Karachi, the population did not increase in all seven districts but only in the four most congested districts where MQM holds its vote, as per the statement.

It is widely believed the changes were made to please the MQM to continue its support for the government in power desperately needed to continue its rule. Surprisingly, the overall percentage population of provinces remained exactly the same as in 2017, keeping Punjab in the majority over Sindh, Balochistan and Pakhtunkhwa combined. (ANI)

ALSO READ: GREAT SELL OFF: Desperate Sale of Public Assets of Pakistan

Categories
-Top News Asia News

Canada’s Parliament rises up, recognising Sindhi language

Jeremy Patzer, a conservative MP elected from Cypress Hill, has called upon Canadian Consulate Karachi and High Commission Islamabad to continue to recognize Sindhi as official language …reports Asian Lite News

House of Commons of Canada rose up to recognize the Sindhi language and has stressed upon Canadian mission in Pakistan to build Sindhi language websites to remove the barriers to communication between his government and the Sindhi people at their native towns and the native land.

This was emphasized by Canadian MP Jeremy Patzer in the House of Commons in Ottawa.
“Today, I rose in the House to recognize the Sindhi language. Canada can take a small, but important step to preserve it abroad. Doing so would strengthen the relationship between Canada and the Sindhi peoples in Sindh, as well as other regions of Pakistan and the diaspora,” Jeremy Patzer tweeted on December 9.

He also honored Sufi Laghari and Mir Muzafar Talpur of the Sindhi Foundation in the House of Commons. Sindhi Foundation is a Washington-based Human Rights body for the rights of Sindhis in present Pakistan.

Calling upon his fellow MPs to accord a standing ovation to both of them in recognition of Sindhi as one of the ancient languages of the world “and, worth preserving today,” he stated.

“Sindhi is recognised as an official language of the province of Sindh in Pakistan. It is not recognized as regional language by Canadian Consulate at Karachi, nor by the High Commission in Islamabad. The lack of recognition of the prominent regional language is resulting in a barrier of communication between the Canadian Consulate and High Commission and the Sindhi people. This needs to be changed. The Sindhi people deserve consular services in their own tongue,” he emphasised.

Jeremy Patzer, a conservative MP elected from Cypress Hill, has called upon Canadian Consulate Karachi and High Commission Islamabad to continue to recognize Sindhi as official language and to provide services to the people in Sindhi language.”

Paying tribute to the Sindhi language he concluded, “Sindhi is a rich and beautiful language. It is ought to be preserved.” He thanked the house by pronouncing the Sindhi word ‘mehrbani’ as he concluded. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Anti-China protests across Europe to mark International Human Rights Day

Categories
-Top News Asia News

Sindhis to protest outside UN over water scarcity

JSFM founder, Zafar Sahito said that they are targeting Bilawal as it is his party, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), that runs Sindh which is facing an acute shortage of water….reports Rahul Kumar

With acute water scarcity parching Sindh, human rights group — Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement (JSFM) has called for protests against the water shortage in front of the UN office in New York.

The protest coincides with Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s two-day visit to the US, ostensibly to repair ties with one of its long-term partners. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan had dealt a severe blow to US-Pakistan ties with a tirade of allegations that Washington toppled his government.

Among Bilawal’s numerous engagements will be attending a ministerial meeting – Global Food Security Call to Action – at the UN headquarters in New York on May 18.

Pic credits Twitter

It is this meeting that Sindh activists are targeting. JSFM founder, Zafar Sahito told India Narrative that they are targeting Bilawal as it is his party, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), that runs Sindh which is facing an acute shortage of water.

Sahito said: “The Sindh government run by the PPP elites have sold the national resources of the province to Pakistan’s military in lieu of personal benefits. The people of the province are facing a severe shortage of water”.

The reality is that not just Sindh, neighbouring Balochistan province too is facing a severe water crisis. Almost half of Pakistani terrain is drying up fast.

The Sindhi campaigner, who lives in exile in the US, said that the construction of big dams and canals on the Indus river as collaborative ventures between Pakistan and China have brought a climate crisis to the Sindh province.

Pic credits Twitter

He added that the shortage of water in Sindh is not natural but has been engineered by the large construction projects by the two close allies.

Sahito has also called for an international investigation into the sharing of waters of river Indus between Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh province.

The water situation in Sindh has worsened with little water flowing into its Indus-linked canals province from the upstream region of Punjab, sparking a small kerfuffle between the irrigation and water ministers of the two provinces.

The situation worsened this year with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah pointing out a water shortage of nearly 40 per cent. Highlighting how dire the situation has been in the province, he asked rice farmers to avoid cultivating the water-intensive crop this year.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

ALSO READ: Pakistan urged to ban luxury goods import amid crisis

ALSO READ: Pakistan-IMF talks kick off in Doha

Categories
-Top News London News UK News

Sindhis, Balochs stage anti-Pak protest in London

Anti-Pakistan protests across the globe were also organised and the demonstrators raised their voices against Islamabad’s role in the Afghanistan debacle and blamed the country for helping the Taliban…reports Asian Lite News.

As Pakistan celebrated its Independence Day on August 14, people from Sindh and Baloch communities held an anti-Pakistan protest in London to condemn the Human Rights violations by Pakistan.

Protestors on Saturday carried placards that read “14 August is Black Day for Baloch and Sindhis” and “Stop genocide of Baloch people” and shouted slogans against Pakistan.

Meanwhile, anti-Pakistan protests across the globe were also organised and the demonstrators raised their voices against Islamabad’s role in the Afghanistan debacle and blamed the country for helping the Taliban.

Multiple protests were held in the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, and Austria on Sunday against the Taliban’s seizure of key regions and brutal offensive in Afghanistan.

Around 300 persons also gathered at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Saturday protesting against Pakistan for supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan. (ANI)

ALSO READ-UN urged to protect Baloch refugees in Afghanistan

READ MORE-Baloch senator alleges conspiracy in temple attacks