JSMM Chairman urges UN to hold Pakistan accountable for enforced disappearances in Sindh

Frankfurt [Germany] August 31 (ANI): On the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Shafi Burfat, Chairman of Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), delivered an appeal to the United Nations and global human rights organisations, urging them to hold Pakistan accountable for systematic atrocities against the Sindhi people.

Burfat said enforced disappearances are not isolated incidents but a deliberate state policy by Pakistan's military establishment to silence Sindhi political activists, intellectuals, and freedom advocates. He condemned the abductions, torture, and extrajudicial killings, noting that many victims are either returned as mutilated bodies or remain missing indefinitely. According to him, this practice amounts to a crime against humanity that continues unchecked due to international silence.

Highlighting Sindh's plight, Burfat stated that the province remains colonised within Pakistan's artificial state structure, suffering political oppression, economic exploitation, and cultural domination. He accused the Pakistani army and intelligence agencies of functioning as a "corrupt mafia," enforcing Punjabi colonial domination, while promoting extremism and terrorism in the region.

He honoured Sindhi activists such as Bashir Khan Qureshi, Muzafar Bhutto, and Serae Qurban Khawhar, who were tortured and killed for demanding Sindhudesh's freedom. Their only crime, he said, was raising their voice for democracy, secular values, and dignity against what he called Pakistan's "theocratic fascism and colonial exploitation."

Burfat stressed that enforced disappearances are not merely a Sindh issue but part of a global struggle for human rights, linking Sindh's cause with oppressed nations from Balochistan, Kurdistan, and beyond. He urged the international community to recognise that the enforced disappearances in Sindh are not isolated incidents but a systematic crime against humanity. He called for strong international pressure to secure the immediate and unconditional release of all missing persons and demanded that Pakistan's military establishment be held accountable for its role in these atrocities. Above all, he emphasised that the only just and lasting solution lies in supporting Sindh's right to self-determination.

"The freedom of the disappeared cannot be separated from the freedom of the nations they represent," Burfat declared, warning that enforced disappearances will persist as long as historic nations remain captive under colonial and authoritarian states. Concluding his address, he appealed to the UN, democratic governments, and civil society to stand with the Sindhi people in their fight for freedom, dignity, and justice. (ANI)

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