KARACHI: Almost all religious and most of the political organisations, besides the legal community, held protest demonstrations and rallies across Sindh on Monday to condemn ‘genocide’ of the Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar. Leaders and activists of the organisations expressed their serious concern over the exodus of the affected families from Myanmar and the plight of thousands of refugees crossing into neighbouring Bangladesh. They appealed to the United Nations and other international forums to intervene on an emergency basis to protect them from the tyranny.

In Karachi, rallies and demonstrations were held outside the local press club, many mosques and public places under the aegis of political and religious parties as well as rights organisations.

The legal fraternity observed a boycott of court proceedings to take part in the rallies taken out from the offices of various bar associations.

A joint rally organised by several social organisations was taken out from the Ghotki press club. Led by Asif Malik, the participants marched through roads in the city and raised slogans against the Myanmar government. They later held a demonstration and sit-in at Pakistan Chowk where several activists delivered speeches.

Another big rally was taken out under the leadership of Raunti UC chairman Abdul Razzak Chachar and vice chairman Malik Moham­med Aslam in Raunti town of Ghotki district.

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional activist Bachal Mahar, along with some other party colleagues, held a press conference at his residence on Tuesday to condemn massacres of Muslims in Myanmar over the decades. “Muslims’ houses are torched and they are butchered to force the community to leave that country,” he said, adding that most serious human rights violations were being committed against the community there. The silence of international rights organisation over the violence was beyond anyone’s comprehension, he added.

He urged the government of Pakistan and other Islamic countries to raise the issue forcefully and urgently at all world forums.

Small traders’ organisation in Sukkur led by its president Jawed Memon chaired an emergency meeting to condemn the tyranny against the Muslim community in Myanmar. The meeting urged the UN and all human rights bodies of the world to take notice of the catastrophic situation instead of playing the role of silent spectators.

A delegation of the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek led by Maulana Mehboob Ali Sahito called on Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah on Tuesday and appealed to him to raise the issue in parliament. MNA Nauman Islam Shaikh was also present.

Mr Shah and Mr Shaikh held out the assurance to the delegation of Sunni Tehreek that they would take up the matter at all forums at the diplomatic level.

Rallies and demonstrations were also organised by the Sukkur Chamber of Commerce and Indus­try, Rajput Bandhani Welfare Association and other organisations in different cities and towns of Sukkur, Ghotki, Kandhkot-Kashmore, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Badin, Mithi and other districts where lawyers also stayed away from court proceedings and took part in the protests organised by their respective bar associations.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2017