Sindh: “The nationalist parties of Sindh organized protests and blocked highways in various parts of the province after vocal objections to the construction of six new canals on the Indus River were repeatedly reiterated.” In Shaheed Benazirabad district, Jeay Sindh Mahaz also stopped the National Highway on Sunday, calling for the safe return of attorney Aamir Ali Umrani, who has reportedly been the victim of enforced abduction, according to the Tribune.

Sanna Qureshi, the head of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, held a sit-in protest in Dera Mour in the Kashmore-Kandhkot area on the Sindh-Punjab border, the Tribune said. For many hours, interprovincial travel was halted due to the rally. “No dam, no canal is acceptable on the Indus River,” Qureshi said. “If we aren’t taken seriously, we are staging a sit-in today here, and tomorrow it will be at another place.” He bemoaned the fact that water was the only significant resource still in Sindh, since the center had already taken control of the province’s coal, oil, and gas.

According to Qureshi, people’s lives have become terrible due to anarchy in the districts of Larkana and Sukkur divisions, where they are left vulnerable to criminals. “After sunset these districts become no-go areas.”
He urged everyone to wake up and speak out for their rights. “Sindh’s people have been divided through tribal clashes.” Qureshi said that he would head peace missions to all the tribes involved in resentment.

Ayaz Latif Palijo, the head of the Qaumi Awami Tehreek, also organized a protest gathering in Kashmore-Kandhkot to express disapproval of the center’s obstinate resolve to go forward with the canals project. “Don’t make Sindh a barren land under the garb of some development initiative for the country,” advised him.

He accused the federal and provincial administrations of using force to repress Sindhi farmers. He accused the provincial administration and the Pakistan People’s Party of abandoning the cause of Sindh and its citizens’ rights.

Speaking during a sit-in demonstration on the National Highway in the Shaheed Benazirabad area, Chairman JSM Riaz Ali Chandio called for Umrani’s immediate release from those unlawfully holding him. According to The Tribune, “a shutterdown strike would be called in Benazirabad if he isn’t released in 24 hours.”