KARACHI: Dr. Asko Parpola, a specialist in Indo-European languages and history at the University of Helsinki, Finland, said in an interview … that an 11-year-old research on the Indus script conducted by a team of Finn experts had revealed that it was Dravidian. … The conclusions will bring out new evidence with the help of some interesting Indus-related seals from the Middle-East, including four round seals with Indus script found in the past decade during excavations in Bahrain and Falaika, he said. … He said that evidence so far collected convinced him … that the Indus script was Dravidian. Further research will continue not only by him … but by others all over the world, he said.

[Meanwhile, as reported by our staff correspondent from Lahore,] Mian Tufail Mohammad, Amir Jamaat-i-Islami, today [March 5] appealed to Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to create a congenial atmosphere in which the country could march on the road of democracy... . … Addressing a Press conference, the Jamaat chief said … the ruling party’s bid to “resort to the politics of violence to crush the Opposition was incomprehensible”.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2025