KARACHI: A resolution calling upon the United Nations to immediately set up a Commission “to investigate the ever-deteriorating condition in Hyderabad; check further atrocities being committed upon the Muslims there, and help to restore her independence which she enjoyed before her present illegal occupation by the Indian Army” was passed unanimously at a largely attended meeting [here] on ... [May 21] at Aram Bagh. The meeting was organised to observe “Hyderabad Day”. Shaikh-ul-Islam Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani, who presided, recalled the past history of Hyderabad and the peaceful conditions in the Dominion before her capitulation to the Indian Union’s “police action”.

He declared that Hyderabad was made a target of attack and loot not because there was any disturbance or that any injustice was being done to her non-Muslim subjects, but because she was an Islamic State and the centre of Muslim culture, tradition and progress.

Referring to the UN, Maulana Usmani said that it was an organisation of the “Big Powers” whose self-interests dominated all other considerations of justice ... and in which the position of weaker nations was nothing more than that of pawns in a game of chess.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2024