HYDERABAD, May 12: The Awami Tehrik observed black day in many parts of the province on Thursday to condemn the May 12 tragedy in Karachi and remember people who fell prey to terrorists' bullets that day on the roads of the metropolis.

In Hyderabad, activists of the party led by Rasool Bux Palijo, Sindhiani Tehrik leaders Ms Husna Rahujo and Zahida Shaikh led a march, which started from Hyder chowk and terminated at the press club.

Mr Palijo addressed students of the Institute of Law, Sindh University, at the press club. The function was organised to pay tribute to the martyrs of May 12, 2007 who were gunned down when they came on the roads to welcome the then dysfunctional Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry.

Mr Palijo said that Arghuns and Turkhans had been thrust on Sindh for the second time in 1947 although there was no mention of transfer of population in the 1940 Resolution.

On May 12, 2007, lawyers were locked up in the Sindh High Court building in Karachi and issued threats of dire consequences by terrorists, he said.

He said that terrorists were a product of American imperialism and secret agencies. If the agencies gave up terrorists' support they would not find any refuge to hide and would confess all crimes before police, said Mr Palijo.

He said that terrorists had committed thousands of murders since 1986 but no action had ever been taken against them.

The democracy in the country was a democracy of waderas and sardars who had handed over higher seats of learning to terrorists, he said, adding that educational institutions in Karachi had been declared out of bounds for Sindhi-speaking students.

There was no such ban, he said, on Baloch and Pakhtun students preventing them from studying in Quetta or Peshawar, respectively.