Sindh, currently a province of Pakistan . has long been the victim of Islamabad 's discrimination and oppression. The Pakistani army and Punjab , Pakistan 's politically dominant province, systematically discriminate against many Pakistani peoples, including the Sindhis. Balochs, Pukhtoons, and Scraikis_ Like many of Pakistan 's past regimes, General Musharrars non-democratic government has adopted policies that blatantly discriminate against the Sindhi people, who have always been on the forefront of democratic and secular movements in the country.
Recently, Sindhis and Balochs have demanded justice for Sindhi female physician who was gang raped in Balochistan by military officers. The military has interfered with the investigation. threatening local police who collected DNA and blood samples, and demanding the release of witnesses at gunpoint. The Pakistani military has responded to protests against this highhandedness with characteristic brutality: it has shelled Baloch towns, destroyed places of worship including a Hindu temple, killed more than 100 innocent civilians including women and children and injured hundreds innocent Balochis.
The Sindhi people are constant victims of Pakistan 's tyranny. Over the last three months, Pakistan's military and paramilitary forces have started a widespread operation using heavy air and ground artillery in Sindh and Balochistan_ Most recently, on 4 t ' March 2005, Mr. Sameeullah Kalhoro, who was Senior Vice Chairman of a Sindhi Nationalist Party Jeay Sindh Muttahdah Mahaz, died in a hospital. lie was arrested in November 2004, and although he was never produced before any court, he was continuously tortured in cells of Pakistani Security forces. He was admitted to a hospital five days before his death in critical condition: he was unable to walk and vomiting blood and he had lost his eyesight due to torture by Security forces.
The death of Sindhi political activists due to their brutal treatment whilst in police custody is not a new phenomenon. Many political activists are held without any charges and are never brought before a court of law. Currently, hundreds of Sindhi and Baloch workers and leaders are being harassed and detained arbitrarily by intelligence agencies, particularly by the notorious Inter Services Intelligence (1SI). Recently eight Sindhi political activists, Fayaz Jamvari, Asghar Shah, Mazhar Bhatti, Imran Laghari, Rafiq Laghari, Sikandar Soomro, and Munwar Mari were arrested on false charges of sedition, and we have reports that they have been tortured by Security forces. They have not been produced before any court of law. We fear for the safety of their lives and demand that the UN Human Rights commission intervene in this matter so that their lives can be saved.
The pervasive, institutional racism against Sindhis has also generated an acute, unprecedented, man-made shortage of water. Non-adherence to water accords, water diversion and theft, inequitable water distribution, and the construction of dams and canals along the Upper riparian of River Indus have severely reduced Sindh's access to water. These measures violate one of the Sindhi people's most basic human rights, the right to water.
Even the Sindhi language suffers from Pakistan 's discrimination_ A majority of the people of Sindh speak the Sindhi language, and Sindhi was the official language of the region even under British rule. However, after the partition, 1500 Sindhi medium primary schools were shut down in major towns within a single year, and this problem continues to this day. The indigenous children of Sindh have been deprived of education in their own language. The state-controlled media broadcast less than 30 minutes of Sindhi public television a day. The Sindhi press and other Sindhi media receive no official assistance, and recently the federal government banned Sindhi newspapers on domestic and international flights operated by Pakistan International Airlines. In fact, the Sindhi language has been so thoroughly marginalized that its survival is threatened.
We demand justice for Sindh and Sindhis. We would, therefore, request the world body, the UNO, to encourage the Pakistani regime to recognize the rights of Sindhis and people of other nations who joined or were forced to join Pakistan . We appeal to all the individuals and international organizations that believe in justice, peace, and fairness to support the democratic struggle of the people of Sindh and to demand that the anti-democratic and anti-humanitarian regime of Pakistan stop violating the basic human rights of the people of Sindh and Balochistan.
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