March 27, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1428

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NAWABSHAH, March 26: The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Chairman Bashir Khan Qureshi on Monday termed the government’s move to grant provincial autonomy a ‘farce’ and charged that Punjab had occupied the natural resources of Sindh and Balochistan.

Addressing a gathering in Daulatpur after Paigham-i-Sindh caravan reached there, Mr Qureshi said that the law and order situation in the province getting from bad to worse and thousands of jobless youth were forced to commit suicide.

Mr Qureshi said that his party had started the long march to reawaken Sindhis and fill them with a renewed sense to stand up for their rights. The peaceful march carried the late G. M. Syed’s message of tolerance, he added.

He said that the agencies had picked up JSQM leaders Dr Safdar Sarki, Asif Baladi, Basheer Shah and many Baloch nationalist leaders.

Akash Mallah who suddenly turned up in a jail after he was picked up and held incommunicado for months by agencies had signs of brutal torture and his nails had been pulled off, he said and feared the agencies might kill the missing persons.

Earlier on Sunday thousands welcomed the caravan when it entered Nawabshah district at Shahpur Jehanian. Mr Qureshi visited the shrine of Hassan Shah Jehanian and offered condolence to the family of late journalist Munir Arain.

He was accompanied by Dr Niaz Kalani, Hanif Sagar Burdi and Ms Ghulam Fatima.

LAND GRABBING: A doctor demanded on Monday that the president, prime minister and chief justice take action against a landlord, a former minister and PML leader, who he said had occupied his land in Daulatpur.

Dr Riaz Ahmed Arain told a news conference at the local press club that he had purchased four acres of land near Doulatpur railway station, had its ownership transferred to his name, and sold it after divided the four acres into plots of different sizes.

But when he wanted to give the plots’ possession to the buyers a former Sindh minister and district president of PML-Q Khan Mohammad Dahiri occupied his land and got it tilled.

When he talked to him he issued threats and said that Doulatpur was his property and no one could buy or sell land there, he said.

He said that he had sent applications to all the high ups and also handed an application to governor Sindh during his visit of the town but all in vain.

Mr Arain said that Dahiri had told him that no one could ask him to return the land as he had the backing of Sindh chief minister.

Dahiri had turned Doulatpur into his personal estate and was operating many private jails there, he alleged adding that he also sheltered criminals who were involved in highway robberies.

He said that if the government could take action in Balochistan against Bugti why was it helpless before a landlord in Doulatpur.

He announced that he would hold protest demonstration outside the district council offices from Tuesday followed by a demonstration in Hyderabad and Karachi and then he would proceed to Islamabad and would observe fast unto death outside the Supreme Court.

He said that if anything happened to him or his family, Khan Mohammad Dahri would be responsible for it and an FIR should be lodged against him.

He demanded that the government take notice of Dahiri’s atrocities and save the people of Nawabshah district from his excesses.

When this scribe tried to contact Dahri he was told that he had gone to Karachi. His cell phone, too, was switched off.