SUKKUR: Activists of Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz (JSM-R) staged demonstrations and token hunger strikes in a number of Sindh towns on Sunday in protest against the arrest of party activists and ‘rampant lawlessness’ in the province.

Head of his own faction of JSM, Riaz Chandio, along with other party leaders who led the protest and token hunger strike at a camp set up outside the Sukkur press club complained that on the one hand the government issued permissions to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Awami Tehreek, Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Pakistan Peoples Party and many extremist organisations for closure of roads to hold protests and sit-ins while on the other hand, nationalist parties’ workers were routinely arrested and implicated in fake cases of terrorism despite waging a peaceful struggle for their rights without disturbing general public.

He termed it a mockery of injustice and said that recently a PPP rally disturbed normality in Karachi for three days and led to traffic jams but no action was taken against anybody for disturbing general public.

He said that rule of lawlessness in Sindh was deliberate as the system was being run by powerful people on the basis of their personal likes and dislikes. Sindh faced religious extremism, target killings and extortion in which Peoples Amn Committee, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party were involved, he alleged.

He demanded an end to registration of fake cases against nationalist parties’ workers and warned they would widen the protest if justice was not served to them.

LARKANA: JSM activists held a demonstration outside the press club in protest against the arrest of their colleagues, Majid Bhutto, Irfan Chandio and Kashmir Khan Keerio.

They said that their colleagues were picked up in Sakrand while protesting against the Torhi incident and later challaned in Anti-Terrorism Court over ‘unfounded charges’.

They said that it was an individual’s fundamental and constitutional right to hold protest and said local police arrested them because they held personal grudge against them.

They demanded immediate release of their colleagues and called for carrying out census and taking steps against ‘outsiders’ who had settled in Sindh, religious extremism and mega projects which, they said, were aimed at reducing Sindhis to a minority.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2016