New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan is carrying out genocide against Sindhi people, similar to what it did to Bengalis in East Pakistan who rebelled to liberate themselves later to become Bangladesh.
This is what a prominent leader from Sindh has to say about the conditions prevailing in his homeland to justify the demand for freedom from Pakistan.
Zafar Sahito, founder of Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement (JSFM), says India should step in to help the beleaguered ethnic people of Sindh and also those of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Balitistan where Pakistani state authorities are committing “genocide”.
“Why do I want separate Sindhudesh? Because I do not want to lose my secular identity… Pakistan is committing genocide in Sindh,” said the leader of the organisation which is spearheading the struggle for liberation of Sindh from Pakistan.
He likened the situation in Sindh to the one which existed in East Pakistan prior to its independence in 1971 to become Bangladesh.
“In East Pakistan, discrimination was meted out to Bengalis by Pakistan (State). The same is being done to Sindhi people. We are suffering and getting killed. Pakistan carried out genocide against Bengalis (in East Pakistan which later became Bangladesh). The same is being done to Sindhis,” said Sahito who lives in exile in the US.
“What happened in Bangladesh (East Pakistan)?… If you are in Pakistan and do not belong to Sunni Muslim (sect), or to the military, or the upper class of Punjab, you have no right to live,” he said.
“In Pakistan, Christians are persecuted, Hindus are persecuted. The population of minorities in Pakistan was 26 percent in 1947 (when Pakistan was born). It has now only 1.3 percent Hindus. Where have all others gone? Sindhi Hindus are persecuted every day in Pakistan. Genocide is being carried out in many ways, not only in the form of physical elimination but also culturally, in terms of elimination of language and identity,” the Sindhi leader rued.
On his expectations from India, he said, “India is a mighty country… India has to play its card. It is the right time now. You have a great PM Narendra Modi ji. … We are looking forward to India that it will be our saviour like it was for Bangladesh. It is the moral duty of secular nation… we are same (as Indians).”
Describing India as “a democratic power of Asia and the world”, he said, “It has to realise its power and play its role to save not only the indigenous Sindhis but also the Baloch, the Pashtun and the Gilgit-Baltistan people. India has to give a message that ‘we are the super power of Asia’.”
On claims by Pakistan that India is helping the liberation movement of Sindhis, the leader rubbished it as a misleading tactic.
