LARKANA, April 8: Demand of the ‘independence of Sindh’ was raised by a big crowd gathered at the grave of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) leader Bashir Khan Qureshi in Ratodero on Sunday night to observe his first death anniversary.

Mr Qureshi died in Sakrand on April 7 last year under mysterious circumstances and since then his party is running a sustained campaign for the arrest of his killers, claiming that the country’s security agencies were behind his alleged assassination.

The mourners stayed at the venue of the gathering late into the night paying homage to their leader and demanding unveiling of the facts about a sudden death of Mr Qureshi.

Sanan Qureshi, the deceased leader’s son who has been elevated to head the JSQM, told the mourners that his father had been eliminated under a conspiracy, which must be unveiled and all those behind the conspiracy must be exposed. The anniversary programme began with Quran Khwani at the grave. The late leader’s speeches were played at the camps set up on the routes of caravans of participants coming from various areas of the province.

A group of Mr Qureshi’s ardent supporters comprising Mukhi Ashok Kumar, Mehraj Mahesh Kumar and Ravi Kumar of the Hindu Panchayat, poured their blood into some lamps which were lit and placed on his grave.

Scattered across a 16-acre radius around the grave, a large number of stalls displayed books, cassettes, CDs and other material containing speeches of Bashir Qureshi. The other stuff up for sale included portraits of the late leader as well as posters, calendars and stickers carrying Mr Qureshi’s photos and quotations.

Sanan Qureshi and other JSQM leaders spoke to the participants from a stage and resolved to carry forward the mission of Bashir Qureshi.

The audience raised slogans for independence of Sindh and against government for its failure in unmasking the killers of their party chief.

Sanan Qureshi appealed to the international human rights organisations to initiate a fair probe into the alleged assassination of his father, and said that the police never obliged the bereaved family who wanted to lodge a murder FIR against killers and their accomplices. He said a case had been registered on behalf of the state despite issuance of court orders asking the police to accept the FIR as per the desire of the bereaved family and the deceased leader’s party leadership.

He said one year on, no investigation into the late leader’s death could be conducted.

Another JSQM central leader, Dr Niaz Kalani, said that Bashir Qureshi stood by the ideology and philosophy of veteran nationalist leader G.M. Syed throughout his life. He recalled that Mr Qureshi had once led a rally of thousands of people who travelled to Karachi on his call.

Blaming the Pakistan Peoples Party for his ‘assassination’, Mr Kalani also accused the PPP of selling away Sindh’s islands, imposing an unpopular local government law on the province, creating an aliens’ city — Zulfikarabad — on Sindh’s soil and leaving several million flood-hit people of Sindh in the lurch.

Dodo Mehri of the Sindh United Party said that Bashir Qureshi had amicably settled 110 tribal disputes, which had otherwise been eroding peace in different parts of Sindh.

He described the late leader as a man of commitment who stood by his workers and supporters, as well as members of the general public through thick and thin.Muzaffar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party, Akash Mallah, Maqsood Qureshi, Asif Baladi, Kehar Ansari, Amjad Mahiser, Saghar Haneef Burdi, G.M. Abro, Nayab Sarkash Sindhi, Munir Haidar Shah, Aslam Khairpuri and others also spoke.