MULTAN: A demonstration, by the Seraikistan Awami Ittehad, was held at the Qila Kuhna Qasim Bagh on Friday to commemorate the fall of Multan at the hands of the Sikh army in 1818.

Participants, led by Mehmood Nizami, Zahoor Dhareja, Prof Shaukat Mughal, Khwaja Farid Koreja and Akbar Ansari, burnt the effigy of Raja Ranjeet Singh.

Speakers urged the rulers of Punjab to tender apology over the brutality by Raja Ranjeet Singh on the Seraiki people during his rule.

They said the next year would mark 200 years of the fall and now this occupation be ended with the establishment of the Seraiki province.They said the Seraiki province was also the need of federation as it is ironic that a province (Punjab) consisted of 62pc of the total Pakistan population. They said the Indian Punjab had been divided into provinces but the Pakistani Punjab had been expended further with the inclusion of Bahawalpur.

They said the Seraiki belt wanted to live under the constitution of Pakistan.

They paid a tribute to Muzaffar Khan Sadozai who was the governor of Multan on June 2, 1818, and died along with his sons and a daughter fighting against the invaders.

They also rejected the federal budget of 2017-18, calling it anti-Seraiki.

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Seraiki nationalists also commemorated the day with burning an effigy of the Sikh Raja.

They took out a procession under the banner of the Pakistan Seraiki Awami Party and Seraiki Qaumi Ittehad and led by Akbar Khan Malkani and Syed Amir Farid Mushhadi.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2017