August 11, 2008	Monday	Sha’aban 8, 1429

HYDERABAD, Aug 10: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain, who has been issuing statements about threat of Talibanisation in Karachi in recent weeks, has now warned against Taliban’s activities in Badin and other areas of Sindh.

Addressing a ceremony held to launch a book at the Circuit House here on Saturday night, he expressed the fear that if the port city and capital of Sindh fell to Taliban then who would think that the rest of Sindh would remain safe.

He praised Sajid Soomro for writing two books on MQM-PPP reconciliation and the future of Sindh and Sindh’s progressive process, and remarked that the rural-urban divide existed almost everywhere in the world but without parochial feelings unlike in Sindh where this divide was linked to some bitter realities.

He acknowledged the historical fact that the people of Sindh had embraced refugees from India with open arms but some elements on both sides were responsible for creating hatred.

He talked about efforts made by him and late G.M. Syed for bridging the divide, with G.M. Syed declaring that Sindh was a permanent abode of the people who had come from India.

Altaf said that because of lack of interaction among people, the Urdu-speaking people could not learn Sindhi.

He said that Sindh had never been a land of gun-toting extremists; it is a land of saints who preached love.

“People must unite to save this land from Talibanisation that was threatening its very integrity,” he warned.

“My party members report that Taliban activities are taking place in the interior of Sindh in areas like Badin,” he said.

He said that an unspecified number of people were coming daily from Fata and Northern Areas to Karachi and the interior of Sindh.

Altaf vowed he would not let anyone occupy Karachi. If Sindhi- and Urdu-speaking people united he would establish checkpoints to stop the influx of Taliban into Karachi and push them back.

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (organizing committee) chief Abdul Wahid Areesar, adviser to Sindh Governor Yusuf Jamal, Sindhi intellectuals Dilshad Bhutto, Sajid Soomro and MQM coordination committee member Shoaib Bukhari also spoke at the ceremony.