July 14, 2008	Monday	Rajab 10, 1429

HYDERABAD, July 13: Condemning the proposed demolition of 17 villages mainly inhabited by Sindhi-speaking people in Karachi, the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chairman has asked the villagers to unite on one platform to resist the move.

In a statement faxed to Dawn here on Sunday, STP chairman Dr Qadir Magsi said that his party would lead the resistance movement and called upon the PPP government to respect the mandate given to it by Sindhis.

He said “the heirs of Sindh are being subjected to atrocities in Karachi by an ethnic group” and they were being deprived of employment and business and added that no facilities of clean drinking water, electricity, gas, schools, health and roads were provided to the residents of these centuries old villages.

“This is a part of a calculated move to evict the Sindhi speaking population from Karachi to establish Jinnahpur,” Mr Magsi claimed.

He said that the STP would perform its national duty to protect the Sindhi villages.

Meanwhile, the vice-chairman of the party, Ali Hassan Chandio, has announced that STP would convene an all-party conference at Taraqqi Pasand house at Marooara Goth in Karachi on July 15, to discuss the issue.