HYDERABAD: Activists of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) staged protests in several Sindh towns on Friday against ‘disappearance’ of the party’s president of Mirpurkhas division Hafiz Attaullah Haidri and other activists, urging the government to take steps for their immediate recovery.

In Hyderabad, ASWJ activists held a demonstration outside the press club where the outfit’s information secretary Syed Asim Ali Shah said that Hafiz Attaullah was the latest among dozens of other activists including Imran Commando and Tauseef from Hyderabad who had been missing for several days.

He called for the release of ASWJ central president Allama Aurangzeb Farooqui and demanded that the government immediately recover all missing activists.

Despite the fact that the outfit had always cooperated with the government, its leaders and activists were being picked up routinely.

This crackdown against a peaceful and patriotic party must come to a halt now, he warned.

In Jacobabad, ASWJ activists took out a rally which set out from Shaheed Allah Bux Park and reached the press club where the participants held a sit-in.

The outfit’s leaders saw conspiracy behind unabated ‘disappearance’ of leaders and demanded immediate release of Hafiz Attaullah and other activists.

They would expand their protest if the activists were not released, he warned.

In Mirpurkhas, hundreds of workers of ASWJ and a number of other religious outfits held a demonstration on M.A. Jinnah Road against the district administration’s failure to recover Hafiz Attaullah.

He along with his friend Faizan Malik disappeared a couple of days ago in Mirpurkhas when they were going somewhere on a motorcycle.

The activists of ASWJ, Sunni Action Committee, Ulema Action Committee, Jamiat Ulma-i-Islam-Sami and JUI-F blocked the road during the protest but dispersed peacefully afterwards.

Addressing the protesters, speakers said that Hafiz Attaullah was a true patriot who always taught his workers to work for peace and love for all.

They warned the Sindh government to recover him immediately, else the party would expand its protest throughout the country.

If any case was lodged against him he should be produced in court, they said.

The district administration should get rid of the elements which were misguiding it with regard to their outfit, they said.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2015

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