HYDERABAD, March 20: Leaders of nationalist parties and intellectuals on Sunday demanded that the operation in Balochistan should be stopped immediately. They were speaking at a seminar on “Situation obtaining in Balochistan and the Baloch National Movement” at the Hyderabad press club on Sunday.
The seminar was convened by the Jeay Sindh Study Circle.
They said that the Baloch were not terrorists but patriots and revolutionary people.
They said that the Balochistan issue did not relate to a few Sardars as was being propagated by the government but it was a national issue of the Baloch people who were struggling for provincial autonomy and control over their own resources.
They said that the government was trampling over fundamental rights of the people of Balochistan and Sindh in the garb of “war against terrorism”.
They said that like Balochistan, natural resources of Sindh were also being looted and plundered.
They said that the nationalist forces of both the provinces should unite on one platform and launch a joint struggle for their rights.
Jeay Sindh National Party leader Agha Shamshad Mughal, Sindh National Party leader Dilshad Bhutto, PPP leader Jam Saqi, JSQM leaders Sagar Hanif Burdi, Sarmad Mirani, Qasim Soomro, Jeay Sindh Study Circle leader Mir Hassan, noted writers Sarkash Sindhi and Badar Soomro, Prof Mushtaq Mirani and the chairman of the study circle, Dr Mir Alam Mari, spoke on the occasion.
In his telephonic speech, Balochistan National Party leader Senator Sanaullah Baloch said that the entire state machinery was engaged in crushing the Baloch people who were struggling for their national rights.
He said that the Baloch have been fighting for their survival since 1947 and added that it was on the fourth occasion that the army operation was being conducted in Balochistan since the inception of Pakistan.
He thanked the nationalist forces of Sindh for supporting the just cause of the Baloch people.
The seminar adopted several resolutions demanding end to army operation in Balochistan, acknowledgement of rights of Baloch on their own resources, release of Baloch and Sindhi nationalist leaders, including Dr Safdar Sarki and Nawaz Khan Zaur.
The seminar rejected construction of dams on the Indus River he NFC award and demanded that water distribution should be made in accordance with the 1945 water agreement and all resources of Sindh should be restored to Sindh.
