HYDERABAD: Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) chairman Dr Qadir Magsi on Monday emphasised the need for moral uplift of people in order to enable them to become protectors of the motherland.

He said the concept of ‘Jeay Sindh [slogan]’ was promoted to lessen popularity of [Pakistan Peoples Party founder chairman and former prime minister] Z.A.Bhutto. Without naming the proscribed Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), he also severely criticised separatist elements associating themselves with the slogan of Jeay Sindh.

Dr Magsi was speaking at a programme organised by his party to observe the 32nd death anniversary of five Jeay Sindh Students Federation (JSSF) activists — Abdul Malik Khushik, Zakaria Memon, Anwar Abbasi, Amanullah Vistro and Mithoo Buledi — who were killed in the infamous Thori Phatak incident on Oct 17, 1984.

He said the STP owned all martyrs of Sindh and regularly organised a programme in Karachi to pay homage to them.

Thori Phatak victims remembered

He was highly critical of the leaders of that era who, he alleged were playing a shameful role today. He observed that champions of the ‘Jeay Sindh’ slogan had disappeared due to the induction of Rangers’ in security operation while others were seeking political asylum abroad.

Dr Magsi said that during the Zia regime, attempts were made to curtail popularity of Z.A. Bhutto. Therefore, he said, those pursuing the path of ‘Jeay Sindh’ were intentionally not “touched”. He called for choosing a serious way of politics “because weapon is something easy to take up”. But people should not stop offering sacrifices for the moral uplift of their nation in order to become protectors of their motherland, he said.

He said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was made more powerful during the Musharraf regime when educated Sindhis also joined in it or became its “supporters”. He said that politics of ‘separatism’ had not been appreciated in the past and it was not welcomed today either by the masses. He said ‘unnamed elements’ were bargaining over Sindh in lieu of support for MQM in the UK and US by forming Sindhi organisations.

The STP chief said there were many ways to pay homage to martyrs but as being part of the Sindhi nation, people should continue their struggle for a revolution.

He said that a majority of Sindhi people was unaware of the names of the Thori Phatak victims. He said that past leaderships did not recognise these martyrs. He recalled that the five activists were killed and 22 others were injured in the incident and in the wake of it, around 200 people were arrested. No one even got a bruise in the March 4 struggle [student agitation at the Sindh University] but it was still regarded as a major part of the student movement.

Seminar, rallies in other parts of Sindh

A rally was held in Jamshoro under the auspices of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz (JSM-R) on Monday in memory of the five student activists who were killed in the Thori Phatak incident on Oct 17, 1984.

Speaking to reporters in Jamshoro, JSM-R chairman Riaz Chandio said “continuity of the Zia’s dictatorial regime is still seen in Sindh” arguing that the civilian rule existed only theoretically. He claimed that a worst dictatorship was currently there in the country.

He was speaking to journalists after laying wreaths on the graves of the Thori Phatak victims. Earlier, he led a rally of his party colleagues that emerged from Marvi Hostel and reached the graves to pay respect to the slain activists.

SUKKUR: A seminar was held and rallies were taken out here on Monday to remember the Thori Phatak victims.

Homage was paid to the JSSF workers by Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) student wing activists who took part in the events and also lit candles next to the portraits of the victims at the Govt Islamia College, Govt Degree College and Ghulam Mohammed Mahar Medical College.

Several JSQM and JSSF activists spoke at the seminar.

The Jeay Sindh Mahaz (JSM) student activists also took out a separate rally from Fountain Chowk which ended in front of the local press club.

Another rally was taken out by the Jeay Sindh Tehreek. Leaders and student activists of the party vowed to continue their struggle for justice to be restored to the affected families of all nationalists who were killed, arrested or missing.

Published in Dawn October 18th, 2016