HYDERABAD: The Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) on Wednesday held protest demonstrations in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Jacobabad and several other cities and towns against what it claimed to be the “extrajudicial killing” of its activist, Gul Mohammed Jogi.

The Phulelli police of Hyderabad on Sept 11 claimed to have shot dead Gul Mohammed aka Gullo in an encounter in Tando Mir Mehmood and described him as a notorious criminal wanted by the Sindh police in over a dozen cases.

In the relevant FIR, it was mentioned that 19 improvised explosive devices were seized in a raid on his Tando Allahyar house in Oct 2014. A bomb disposal squad official, Saleem Vistro, was wounded and later died when he, without wearing protective gear, defused 18 of the devices but the last one went off.

The Sindh government had put a head-money of Rs500,000 on Gullo.

Rejecting the police claims, his family members have been insisting since Sept 11 that Gullo was arrested several days before the alleged encounter. The STP also supported their contention alleging that he was killed extrajudicially because of his political affiliation.

STP activists Jam Shaukat Abro, Babu Sheedi, Riaz Lakho and others leading a protest demonstration in Hyderabad condemned the police for killing their colleague in custody and implicating him in false cases. “The Hyderabad police have become expert in extrajudicial actions and the case of Gullo Jogi is the latest example,” they said while speaking at the demonstration.

They claimed said that Gullo was arrested on Autobhan road and shot dead a few days later by the Phulelli police in a fake encounter. They condemned the police for staging such encounters to kill nationalists and political activists. “They [nationalists] are booked in sedition cases and eliminated,” they alleged, and criticised civil society and human rights organisations for not raising their voice against the injustices and, instead, encouraging the Hyderabad SSP by awarding him a golden crown.

They appealed to the judiciary, media, intellectuals and human rights organisations to play their due role in ensuring protection to activists against “death squads of police”.

In Sukkur, STP activists led by Waheed Khoso, Dost Ali Khoso, Rasheed Sethar, Pervez Chachar and others held a demonstration outside the local press club and raised slogans against the Hyderabad police.

They condemned the Sept 11 killing of Gullo Jogi and claimed that he was arrested three days before the what police claimed to be the encounter. They said Gullo was an STP worker and there was no criminal case registered against him.

They urged the inspector general and other senior officers of the Sindh police to order an inquiry into the police action and restore justice to the victim’s family.

A rally was taken out by STP activists in Jacobabad to protest the killing of their colleague by the Hyderabad police.

The participants emerged from their local office and converged on the local press club and held a sit-in after marching through various roads raising slogans against the alleged custodial death of Gullo Jogi.

Speaking to them, STP activists Abdul Razzak Lashari, Nizam Mastoi, Bashir Ahmed Sabhayo, Dil Murad Lashari, Mohammed Umer Solangi, Raja Lashari, Abdul Nabi Magsi, Ghulam Sarwar Mastoi, Hussain Bukhsh Brohi, Lala Rasool Bukhsh Pathan and others warned the Sindh police against arresting nationalist workers and eliminating them in fake encounters.

They alleged that the Hyderabad SSP was shedding blood of innocent Sindhi people for the sake of fame and promotion. Contesting the police claim about the encounter leading to Gullo’s death, they said the victim was not a terrorist or criminal and if any such case was registered anywhere against them, he must have been produced in a court soon after his arrest.

They alleged that a large number of STP leaders and activists, besides other nationalist and political workers, had been arrested and were being subjected to torture at various police stations and prisons. They called for the withdrawal of all “false” cases registered against them and release of all innocent workers.

They claimed that the Sindh police were not laying hands on those who were really involved in acts of terrorism and against whom evidence was also available.

They demanded arrest of the police personnel involved in the killing of Gullo and certain other political activists in custody. They warned that the STP would intensify its protest if extrajudicial killing of its activists was not put to a halt.

Sindhi language bill rejected

The Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) has rejected the Sindhi language bill presented by the ruling Pakistan Party in the provincial assembly.

In a statement issued in Hyderabad on Wednesday, STP chairman Dr Qadir Magsi said that introducing such a bill was in fact an attempt to do away with the language once and for all.

“The walkout staged by PPP ministers is clearly indicative of the attempt,” he added.

Since a language was directly linked with education and survival of future generations, it was imperative that the Sindhi language be introduced from primary to university level across the province, he said, and urged the government to bound down everyone living in Sindh to learn and study the language.

He described the newly introduced bill as “cosmetic and incomplete” and said that it could not ensure survival of the language.

He urged the ministers who staged the walkout to table a new bill in the assembly.

Published in Dawn September 29th, 2016

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