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Statement of Pakistani Progressives in Solidarity with Victims of Forced Conversion and Against Sunni Tehreek’s attack on Sindh Progressive Committee’s Rally

21 April 2012

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Joint Statement of Pakistani Progressives in Solidarity with Victims of Forced Conversion to Islam and Against Sunni Tehreek’s attack on Sindh Progressive Committee’s Rally

We, progressive organisations from all over Pakistan and Kashmir, jointly
resolve to:

  • Condemn the barbaric acts of kidnapping, forced conversion and "marriage" to strangers of Sindhi Hindu young women by powerful vested interests in connivance with so-called "religious" elements, whose heinous crimes bring shame to all Sindhis as well as to all Pakistani citizens
  • Stand in solidarity with Rinkle Kumari, Asha Kumari and other kidnapped young women, who have been forced to suffer the ultimate humiliation for the venality of the corrupt elite that rules Pakistan
  • Condemn the connivance of the state and the ruling oligarchy of coalition partners in these shameful, predatory attacks on a small and vulnerable minority
  • Demand that all kidnapped young women be recovered and allowed of their free will to re-join their families
  • Demand the arrest of all the criminals involved in this vicious, disruptive campaign of hate and expropriation
  • Demand that an FIR for armed attack be registered against the goons of the Sunni Tehreek who charged the rally of the Sindh Progressive Committee (SPC) in Hyderabad with batons and pelted the female participants with stones
  • Demand the immediate suspension of the SHO of the Madadgar 15 Thandi Sarak police station in Hyderabad for unlawfully detaining 22 members of the Sindh Progressive Committee, even though it was they who were attacked by the Sunni Tehreek goons
  • Demand an immediate withdrawal of the fabricated FIR registered against the activists of Sindh Progressive Committee
  • Thank all those citizens who sent messages of support to the jailed SPC activists and who helped negotiate their release
  • Continue our struggle against religious extremism and state terrorism and for a more inclusive and diverse society

Signatures:

Abid Hasan Minto, president Workers Party Pakistan

Jamil Umer, general secretary Awami Party Pakistan

Younas Rahu, General Secretary Labour Party Pakistan

Imdad Qazi, General secretary Communist Party Pakistan