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DAM-L 600 arrested, Pakistan - Indus Delta Water Shortage Protests;resend(fwd)
rom: owner-irn-narmada@netvista.net
Date sent: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 18:20:20 -0800 (PST)
Subject: LS: 600 Arrested for Protesting Indus Delta Water Shortage
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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