KARACHI, March 23: The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) on Friday staged a rally at Tibet Centre on M.A. Jinnah Road for the ‘independence of Sindh’ — a call made by another nationalist party, the Jeay Sindh Tehrik, at a similar rally held at the same place last Sunday.

“The two-nation theory had become false and irrelevant when Punjabis did not transfer powers to Bengalis after the latter won the 1970 elections; the Bengalis eventually chose to secede,” said JSQM chief Bashir Khan Qureshi while speaking at the rally.

He said that Sindhi nationalist leader G.M. Syed, who had been kept behind bars for 32 years, in his book ‘Sindh speaks’ quoted from Pakistan Movement leader Sir Feroze Khan Noon’s autobiography the ‘Eyewitness’ as saying: “Punjabis were rewarded with Pakistan for the services they had rendered in the first and second world wars.”

Claiming that Pakistan had now become a symbol of religious extremism and terrorism and, as such, a threat to global peace and humanity, he urged the international community to help the Sindhi nation gain independence from Punjabi-dominated country.

He further claimed that soon after Pakistan came into being, religious riots were triggered in Sindh under a conspiracy to convert Sindhis into a minority and this forced over 1.3 million Sindhi Hindus to migrate to India leaving behind their lands measuring over 2.5 million acres and other properties. The assets were then distributed among ‘settlers’. After the construction of barrages, more land  in Sindh measuring around 3.5 million acres was allotted to the settlers brought from Punjab in large numbers, he added.

“A new conspiracy is being hatched to bring in more settlers by creating cities like Zulfikarabad,” alleged the JSQM chief. He declared that Sindhis would not let the conspiracy succeed.

He also supported the Hindu families whose female members had reportedly converted to Islam, and said that Hindu girls were being kidnapped and forcibly converted to compel Hindus to quit the country. He advised Sindhi Hindus not to get panicked and keep living in Sindh as Sindhis were there to protect their life and honour.

Mr Qureshi said that Sindh had welcomed refugees from India in 1947. Therefore, he said, they should remain faithful to Sindh. “The future of the Urdu-speaking people of Sindh is with Sindh and not with Pakistan,” he said.

Condemning Punjab for “usurping Sindh’s resources”, Mr Qureshi said the same was the case of Balochistan, and called on the international community to help Sindh and Balochistan secede from the Punjabi-dominated Pakistan.