Pakistan is an internally or domestically disintegrated country. The repeated anti-establishment protests in Balochistan, the recurring violent incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the massive protests in Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Every row illustrates the spiraling angst and frustration of the civilians against the atrocities of the Pakistan government. The latest addition to this list of protests against the authoritarian and non-democratic regime of Islamabad is the Sindh province.
The latest violent eruption flared up in Karachi, the capital of Sindh. On the occasion of Sindhi Culture Day, people of the Sindh community took to streets in Karachi and indulged in violent protests as their cultural sentiments were severely hurt. They demanded for the liberation of Sindh from Pakistan and urged for the carving of Sindhudesh, a separate nation away from the control of Islamabad. Thus, the longstanding demand of the Sindhi people in Pakistan has yet again soared as an impact of the horrors of Pakistani authorities.
On December 9(Sunday), the Sindh community in Karachi were celebrating the Sindhi Culture Day. However, tensions escalated after the police and authorities insisted the people of Sindhi community to divert the route of their rally. Irked by the biased approach and double standards of the Pakistan authorities, a large group of Sindhis under the banner of “Jiye Sindh Muttahida Mahaz(JSSM) raised the slogans of Azad(freedom) and “Pakistan Murdabad”. As police crackdown on the Sindhi community intensified, the protests took a violent form leading to stone pelting, vandalism and an intense clash/face off between the protestors and the police. The police personnel launched a massive crackdown on the protestors by unleashing tear gas. As per the reports, 45 people are arrested in connection to the protests.
Further, the protestors demanded separation and liberation of Sindh from Pakistan, thus carving a separate nation called Sindhudesh, one which represents Sindhi identity, culture and civilization. Currently, Sindh is the third largest province of Pakistan and shares a border with the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The Sindh province is extensively mentioned in the history of undivided India and Sindhi culture has a strong civilizational link with India. It is indeed mentioned in the epic Mahabharata as ‘Sindhudesh’.
Recently, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had spoken about the civilizational heritage shared between Sindh and India. He had also asserted that though Sindh is not part of the Indian Union in the present day and it is part of Pakistan, the civilizational link between Sindh and India will always be cherished and cannot be ignored. One day there are all possibilities that the province of Sindh can return to India, the Defence Minister had further affirmed.
The latest escalation in Pakistan between the Sindhi community and the Pakistani authorities is thus a testament to the spiking atrocities of the Pakistan government against cultural and religious minorities. The ultimate yield for Pakistan is that it will be chaotically disintegrated in the long-run as the civilians of the country are currently the boiling pot which is indeed going to burst, unable to bear the brunt of Islamabad. Every province encircling Islamabad doesn’t aspire to identify themselves with the government, be it Balochistan, PoJK, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and lately, Sindh. The hybrid and authoritarian government of Pakistan controlled by Islamabad and Rawalpindi is thus tasting the impact of its own deeds fuelled from decades of suppression, targeted attacks etc.
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