HYDERABAD: A group of 72 writers, authors, intellectuals, rights activists, journalists and others on Friday expressed concern over recent desecration of graves in Sann town’s Hyder Sannai graveyard, saying that “it exposes heinous form of discrimination based on caste system”.

A statement signed by them discussed the Sept 9 incident where seven persons led by Syed Zafar Hyder Shah unearthed remains of 13 elders of the Mallah community and dumped them outside the graveyard.

It termed the act “a notorious caste-based prejudice” that lower caste individual should not be buried in the graveyard of Syeds to keep its privilege and sanctity.

The statement noted that an FIR (17/21) was lodged on Sept 24 at the Chhachhar police station but none of the culprits had been arrested yet.

Desecration of graves termed caste-based prejudice

It appealed to conscientious and conscious people to condemn the ruthless act and urged the Sindh government to take legal action “instead of providing protection to the influential caste” so that such crimes did not become a norm or precedent.

They expressed their disappointment over the silence of political parties and leadership which, they said, was akin to siding with the culprits and supporting the caste- and class-based discrimination. They also demanded Sindh-based political parties to take disciplinary action against their workers involved in mudslinging on the social media against weaker or marginalised sections of society and using offensive language against women activists and protesters.

The signatories also urged government institutions to rebury the unearthed remains in the same graveyard with honour and dignity. They called for action against miscreants led by a former newspaper columnist who, they alleged, initiated a vicious character assassination campaign against two women activists/writers who were among those protesting against the incident.

Women writers, activists and journalists had rendered sacrifices to gain public, social and cyber space in “an unsympathetic and traditionally regressive society”, they remarked. They said that such trends, individuals and groups should be discouraged at every level where women were harassed, discriminated against and abused merely on the basis of difference of opinion.

The signatories included Noorul Huda Shah, Jami Chandio, Amar Sindhu, Arfana Mallah, Attiya Dawood, Lala Rehman, Manzoor Mirani, Farooq Soomro, Mahesh Kumar, Ayoub Shaikh, Inayat Magsi, Haseen Musarrat, Zakia Mallah, Dr Bakhtawar Jam, Khuda Bux Abro, Shabnam Baloch, Sahar Gul Bhatti, Mehnaz Rehman, Taj Joyo and Javed Qazi.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2021