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DAM-L LS: 600 Arrested for Protesting Indus Delta Water Shortage (fwd)
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Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 18:20:20 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: LS: 600 Arrested for Protesting Indus Delta Water Shortage
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From: "FSR" <fsr5st@yahoo.com>
To: "NGOs of Pak" <ngo-list@sdnpk.undp.org>
Subject: Fw: Palijo & hundreds of Activists/Environmentalists
arrested in Sindh-Pakistan
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 12:05:02 +0500
----- Original Message -----
From: Fayaz Aziz <<mailto:rbathyd@usa.net>rbathyd@usa.net>
To: wsc-network@egroups.com>; GOSEA-L@NIC.SURFNET.NL
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 8:43 PM
More than 600 environmentalists, civil society activists
and political workers, men and women of Awami Tahreek (Peoples
Movement) including AT President, PONM's Central Leader and Supreme
Court's Lawyer Rasool Bux Palijo were rounded up by more than 15
hundred policemen and rangers of four districts, between Kheber and
Matyari at the main National Highway of Sindh Pakistan today in a bid
to foil Awami Tahreek's Bhit Shah-Karachi Long March for the
protection of Indus Ecology and against the acute water shortage,
district govt plan and unemployment. All the prisoners have been
kept in Hatri, Sekhat and Cant Police Lockups and no one has been
allowed to meet the 71-year-old renowned leader and women prisoners
who have infants and suckling babies with them.
Those who have been arrested include Sindhiani Tahreek
(SINDHI WOMENís MOVEMENT) leaders: Suraj Halepoto, Pirah Khaskheli,
Shahida, Sajida Bhano, Hamida Nizamani, Fatima Bagrani, Salma
Bagrani, Afsana Nizamani, Bhori Menghwar, Maryam Rind, Bakhtawar
Halepoto, Zahida Shaikh and others and Awami Tahreekís leaders Sartaj
Chandio, Wishnoo Mal, Hakim Zangejo, Piral Bhano, Anwar Rind, Choith
Ram, Ali Mir Shah, Mustafa Chandio, Bilawal Lashari, Mashooque
Chandio, Munawar Jatoi, Didar Kandhro, Ashraf Palijo, Rahman Dahri,
Kishor Kumar Kolhi, Poorho Mal, Kesroo Mal, Jamal Leghari, Faizal
Jakhrani, Sadiq Bagrani and others.
For the last several weeks there is no water for irrigation
in Sindh and agriculture, aquatic life, mangrove forests, Indus
Dolphins, fishermen, lower Indus ecology and livelihood of millions
of people have been destroyed due to the water-stealing by the ruling
Punjab Province of Pakistan. This is an unprecedented situation in
the history of the Indus river where for centuries the river was used
as a natural source for social and agriculture needs.
The law enforcing authorities in the command of SSPs, Deputy
Commissioner Hyderabad and several Majors of Rangers blocked the
roads and asked the protesters to get into the trucks, but the
emotional crowd of thousands refused and continued chanting slogans
against the government for destroying the agriculture and economy of
Sindh, on which police first tried to baton-charge the activists but
thousands of AT supporters and villagers of adjacent villages
gathered at Anwar Kot where Awami Tahreek chief himself raised
slogans, ìDarya Je Khatir Jhero Aaaî ìJijal Jey Khatir Jhero Aaî (We
will fight for our river, we will fight for our motherland) and
advanced towards Matyari and Hyderabad. Then more than 1500 Policemen
and rangers ferociously surrounded them and forcibly put them in
dozens of Police vehicles and busses. Once again Mr. Rasul Bux Palijo
tried to stand and address the crowd but policemen compelled him to
sit in the van. At that time when the photographer of Daily Tameer
Sindh tried to take photos of police brutality with the women of
Sindhiani Tahreek and small children the DSP Police Head Quarter
Qayoom viciously attacked the photographer and grabbed his camera.
Due to extraordinary deployment of the rangers and police force,
Karachi Peshawar National Highway was giving a look of an enemy area
put under the curfew, which badly affected the routine traffic.
After the arrest of hundreds of activists the angry crowd
retaliated with stones and blocked the road. Police again rounded up
more than 30 workers from the scene and took them to different police
stations. The hide and seek between police and Awami Tahreek
supporters continued for the rest of the
day. , When AT leaders tried to hold a press conference in Qasimabad
the Palijo House in Prince Town was encircled by the Police and till
now several Mobile Trucks of Police are deployed in Prince Town.
Talking to a group of journalists Awami Tahreek leaders
Mohammad Khan Bhurgri, Dr. Gulzar Jumani, Siraj Siyal, Syed Alam
Shah, Gul Hasan Kirano, Noor Nabi Rahoojo, Dr. Aziz Talpur, Rafi
Leghari, Hasan Pasayo termed the police act as barbarism and
violation of human rights, as people of Sindh province had every
right to protest against the hand made water shortage. They condemned
the police and rangers attitude towards Mr. Palijo, ladies and
infants, they said when the party workers tried to provide medicines
to 71 years old Heart Patient Mr. Palijo in overcrowded Police
Lockup, the SSP fiercely refused to allow them.
The Awami Tahreek leaders have called for hunger strikes in
all the districts of Sindh from tomorrow and onwards and said that
such tyrannies of Punjab and establishment could not compel the
people of Sindh to give up their protest campaign because water is a
matter of life and death for them.
-------------------------------
Friends, we request you to join us in urging Pakistani Government, to
release the renowned intellectual and civil society activist Mr.
Rasul Bux Palijo and hundreds of women workers and peasants and to
allow the discharge of water in Indus. The simple, action you can
take in solidarity with the people of Indus valley: Please email your
protest to the following:
<mailto:CE@pak.gov.pk>CE@pak.gov.pk,
<mailto:omar@sungi.sdnpk.undp.org>omar@sungi.sdnpk.undp.org,
<mailto:wsc-network@yahoogroups.com>wsc-network@yahoogroups.com,
<mailto:sindhorg@yahoogroups.com>sindhorg@yahoogroups.com,
<mailto:kawish12@yahoo.com>kawish12@yahoo.com,
<mailto:ibrat@hyd.compol.com>ibrat@hyd.compol.com,
<mailto:helpasia@yahoogroups.com>helpasia@yahoogroups.com,
<mailto:nab@apollo.net.pk>nab@apollo.net.pk,
<mailto:worldsindhi@yahoogroups.com>worldsindhi@yahoogroups.com,
<mailto:nrb@apollo.net.pk>nrb@apollo.net.pk,
<mailto:amnestyis@amnesty.org>amnestyis@amnesty.org,
<mailto:editor@jang.com.pk>editor@jang.com.pk ,
<mailto:sindhu@hyd.compol.com>sindhu@hyd.compol.com,
<mailto:koshish@yahoo.com>koshish@yahoo.com,
<mailto:editor@nawaiwaqt.com.pk>editor@nawaiwaqt.com.pk,
<mailto:President@WhiteHouse.GOV>President@WhiteHouse.GOV,
<mailto:cnn@cnn.com>cnn@cnn.com,
<mailto:newsroom@dawn.com>newsroom@dawn.com,
<mailto:editor@dawn.com>editor@dawn.com,
<mailto:info@frontierpost.com.pk>info@frontierpost.com.pk,
<mailto:nation@brain.net.pk>nation@brain.net.pk
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