July 02, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 16, 1428

HYDERABAD, July 1: A large number of activists of different nationalist parties marched from the Hyderabad Gymkhana to the local press club on Sunday to register protest against enforced disappearances of nationalist leaders in Sindh and Balochistan including Dr Safdar Sarki, Asif Baladi, Chetan Kumar, G. M. Bhagat and Basheer Shah.

Workers of JSQM, SNF, Awami Tehrik, JSM, Labour Party, Sindh National Congress, Sindhi Adabi Sangat and a number of other organisations took part in the rally, which was organised by the Sindh Nationalist Forum.

The leaders including Comrade Hussain Bux Thebo, Dr Khalil Qazi, Punhal Sario, Ghaffar Malik, Ayoub Shar, Jami Chandio and Taj Joyo feared that the disappeared activists who had been declared absconders by the government could end up getting killed in fake police encounters.

They termed it a conspiracy hatched by state agencies against the young leaders of nationalist parties and called upon the political and social welfare organisations to unite on one platform to secure the release of missing leaders.

They described as completely incorrect the government’s statements in the Supreme Court that Asif Baladi, Chetan Kumar, G. M. Bhagat and Basheer Shah had absconded the law, and claimed that they were being tortured by agencies at some unknown place.

They said that hundreds of political activists had gone missing in Sindh and Balochistan and they had actually been picked up to suppress nationalist movements.

They vowed to continue struggle till the release of all the political activists and warned that they would approach international organisations for justice and expand protest movement as a last resort.