THATTA: A large number of political and nationalist activists, students, social workers and local residents participated in the rally organised by the Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz in Thatta on Saturday.

The protesters were raising slogans against federal and Sindh government’s policies and initiatives under which, according to them, lands in Kohistan and other areas of the province’s coastal belt were being grabbed and Sindh’s natural resources were being taken away.

The rally started from the Makli Public Park and culminated at Thatta rickshaw stand after passing through the nearby section of the National Highway.

Addressing the participants, JSM-R Chairman Riaz Chandio alleged that influential groups, under the cover of development schemes, were grabbing the lands belonging to local communities in Kohistan and coastal areas forcing their owners to surrender their ancestral properties and vacate their settlements.

Referring to the Gujju area, he claimed that residents of Samano Mahalla were dispossessed from their lands illegally while attempts were also being made to grab nearly 25,000 acres in Kohistan.

Mr Chandio criticised the provincial government for handing over Sindh’s natural resources, including coal reserves, minerals, coastal lands and islands, to foreign firms and corporate sector. He alleged that such policies were snatching the rights and identity of local communities.

“The people of Kohistan and the coastal belt have lived on these lands for centuries. Instead of protecting their rights, the authorities are facilitating outsiders’ interests at the expense of local residents’ rights and properties,” he said.

Other speakers, included JSM Vice Chairman Nawaz Shah Bhadai, Rukhsana Halepoto, Ilahi Bux Chachar, Amjad Shoro and Jeay Sindh Tehreek leader Rawal Kirnani.

They highlighted the environmental and economic impact of water shortages and disputed water distribution policies.

The speakers said Sindh was already facing a severe water crisis while the controversial plan to create six canals from the Indus River was bound to deepen it. They said that insufficient flows downstream Kotri was further damaging the agriculture sector, Indus delta and coastal ecology.

They warned that sea intrusion had badly affected the coastal districts of Thatta, Sujawal and Badin due to a lack of freshwater flows downstream Kotri.

According to the speakers, vast stretches of fertile land had been submerged by seawater, forcing thousands of families to migrate and adversely affecting the livelihood of fishing community.

The protesters demanded sufficient flows of freshwater downstream Kotri, an immediate halt to land acquisitions in Sindh and recognition of local communities’ primary right over the province’s natural resources.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2026