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DAM-L one more time: 600 arrested Protesting IndusDelta H2O shortage (fwd)
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Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 21:58:32 -0600
Subject: one more time: 600 arrested Protesting IndusDelta H2O shortage (fwd)
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> 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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