Sindhis in UK observe day-long hunger strike against enforced disappearances in Pakistan’s Sindh

Updated:7 years, 5 months ago

London (UK), May 28 (ANI): Members of the Sindhi community observed a day-long hunger strike in front of Pakistan embassy in London on Sunday. The sit-in was organised by World Sindhi Congress to condemn state-led atrocities against political activists and intellectuals of Sindh. They shouted anti-Pakistan and anti-Army slogans alleging their direct involvement in the abduction of Sindhi activists. There have been over 1,200 known cases of enforced disappearance in Sindh, Pakistan since 2010. The past year has seen a surge in cases with 160 people disappeared since February 2017. Action must be taken to end these egregious human rights violations. There is a long history of using enforced disappearance as a tactic to silence critics and instill fear in the victims’ families and communities in Pakistan. Security forces in Sindh, Pakistan have been known to abduct victims in broad daylight, sometimes dressed in plainclothes and other times in official vehicles and uniforms. They are able to act with impunity because the government of Pakistan refuses to take meaningful action on allegations of enforced disappearance and has not once brought a perpetrator to justice. The disappeared are often human rights and political activists or journalists who have spoken out against the government’s policies and actions against Sindhi people, including environmental degradation, the maladaptation of ancestral lands, displacement and the loss of livelihoods, and large-scale development projects without the consultation or consent of the local communities. Security forces abduct the activists and journalists and hold them incommunicado from anywhere for days to years.