LARKANA, April 29: Speakers at a conference, organised by Larkana District Historical Society, on Sunday urged historians, scholars, researchers and other men of letters to focus on bridging ‘missing links’ in history.

They said that holding conferences, reading papers full of references did not contribute towards history.

It would be an exercise in futility if they failed to extract anything concrete from the heaps of references and facts, they added.

If controversies stood unresolved and nothing new was added to the history what was the need of arguing with a battery of references, they asked.

The controversies over where Quaid-i-Azam was born, which was the authenticated version of Shah-jo-Risalo, where Qalandar was born, what was the reality behind the characters of Raja Dahar, Muhammed Bin Qasim and many more such questions were to be pondered over and resolved once and for all, they said.

They lamented the fact no scholar or historian bothered to ascertain the age of eight mounds discovered in Larkana, which were considered to be older than Moenjodaro, and added that history needed authentication and historians should focus on bridging missing links and bring forth realities before the nation by separating truth from the untruth.

District Nazim Muhamemd Arijo who presided over the conference said that old customs and traditions were dying and institutions were being destroyed at the cost of strengthening individuals. “We should put an end to the trend and start with strengthening institutions and preserving history,” he urged.

He said that the society as a whole was moving in the reverse. The old trend of ‘kutchehry’ in villages had almost vanished and people had no knowledge of their rich past, he said and added that the district government would encourage the historical society by making it a permanent part of the district government.

He also announced construction of ‘Minar-i-Larkana’.

The society awarded posthumous life achievement awards to Comrade Haidar Bakhsh Jatoi, Barrister Jan Muhamemd Junejo, Pir Hassamuddain Rashidi, Allama Muhammed Aarejvi and Hafiz Abdul Karim Pahore in recognition of their services. Their relatives received the awards. Dr Dur Muhammed Pathan announced that he would donate his entire library and book collections if the district government promised to establish ‘Larkana Archives’.

The speakers included Syed Hakim Shah Bokhari, Manzoor Khoyar, Prof Deedar Solangi, Jeeal Oad, Samar Ali Qadri, Dr Dur Muhammed Pathan and Muokhtair Samo.