Washington (NVI): Talk about a militarised zone and Sindh can easily fit the bill.
According to Sindhi leaders, there are 27 cantonments of Pakistani military forces there. And if that is not enough, a move is afoot to set up more cantonments of the Pakistan Rangers in various cities of Sindh.
The Pakistani military personnel there indulge in torture and terrorising of the local Sindhi people.
The militarisation is to such an extent that even the educational institutes, including universities & colleges, and boys & girls hostels are under the control of the military.
In the name of security, military personnel carry out physical checking of students while entering and leaving hostels and in the process, they harass & misbehave with students, according to Zafar Sahito, Founder & Chief organizer of Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement.
Even student politics is not allowed in educational institutions in Sindh.
“In the recent years, we have witnessed abductions of students from these institutions by the paramilitary forces,” Sahito said.
“Many times, even the government of Sindh has accepted that Pakistan Rangers (personnel) blackmail everyone in Sindh & exert beyond their power,” the Jeay Sindh leader said, referring to the kidnapping of Inspector General of Sindh Police by the paramilitary forces and forcing him to sign some documents of arrest a few months back.
“In Sindh, this paramilitary organisation is used to terrorize local Sindhi people. Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) is primarily a border protection force, but in the name of bad law & order situation in Sindh, they were deployed in Sindh in large number. Now they are terrorizing the Sindhi nation, grabbing land of Sindh and torturing common people of Sindh on daily basis,” Sahito said.
“Recently, a circular was issued by the Sindh government, on demand of the Federal government, for allotment of land to Pakistan Rangers in various cities of Sindh. For what purpose? Still no reason is given,” he said.
“A border paramilitary organization is looking for land in cities of Sindh, when hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in Sindh is already occupied by Pakistani forces. Each inch of the land of Sindh is under the boots of Pakistani armed forces. There are approximately 27 cantonments of Pakistani military forces in Sindh,” he said.
“Why do they need more land? To terrorise us? To create more fear, so that peace-loving people of Sindh die because of their atrocities in fear? Pakistan is trying to suppress us. They want us to live under the shadow of their guns.
“Is this not a human rights violation? Is this not breaking of international laws of UN about fundamental rights? Till when will the world keep quiet? Are we not humans? How long we secular Sindhi people have to suffer (at the hands of Pakistani military)? Is UN blind & deaf?”
