JSMM urges UN to act on rights abuses, military crackdown in Sindh

Karachi [Pakistan], May 21 (ANI): The Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), a Sindhi nationalist organisation, has issued an urgent appeal to the United Nations, international human rights organizations, and the global community, seeking immediate intervention over what it describes as "systematic enforced disappearances, killings, and colonial occupation" by the Pakistani state in the Sindh region.

In a strongly worded statement released on Tuesday, JSMM leader Shafi Burfat alleged that Pakistani security forces, particularly the military and intelligence agencies, have unleashed brutal crackdowns on peaceful Sindhi nationalists advocating for independence and self-determination under the Sindhudesh movement.

Referring to the latest incident on May 20 in Moro city, the JSMM said state forces opened fire on peaceful protestors demonstrating against the military's illegal occupation of Sindhi land and the diversion of Indus River waters. One activist, Zahid Laghari, was killed, and over 10 were injured, including Irfan Laghari. Seventy others were arrested.

The JSMM claimed this is part of a wider pattern of abuse, listing several assassinated Sindhi leaders and highlighting the enforced disappearance of nationalist figure Ejaz Gaho, allegedly detained in ISI custody for over a decade.

"Sindh is being treated as a colony. Our resources are looted, culture erased, and dissent criminalised," Burfat said. The organisation has demanded UN investigations, the release of all disappeared persons, and recognition of Sindh's right to self-determination.

The appeal concluded with a warning that silence from the global community will only embolden Pakistan's military apparatus.

"The Sindhi people seek justice, not genocide," it stated.

Further developments are awaited from international human rights agencies. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)