Watch: World Sindhi Congress Protest Against Pakistan

Two days after the Baloch led protests against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC in Geneva, the Pakistani state had to bear with another group of protests in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

This time led by the World Sindhi Congress, a human rights advocacy organisation based out of the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada.

The protest was held against the enforced disappearances of Sindhi political activists, CPEC and other human rights abuses against the Sindhi people meted out by the Pakistani state. The protest was attended by Sindhi, Balochi, people from Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as well.

The protesters chanted slogans against the atrocities by security agencies of Pakistan and were holding banners against the enforced disappearances of Sindhi political activists.

The protesters later submitted petitions to the UN Secretary-General and the United Nation Commissioner for Human Rights.

Dr Hidayatullah Bhutto, the leader of the World Sindhi Congress, spoke in a panel discussion on the intensification of forced disappearance in recent months. He stated that Sindh and Sindhi people are facing one of the worst human rights atrocities in its history.

Unlike Balochistan’s active insurgency, Sindh has mostly had a dormant independence movement that desires the formation of Sindhudesh, an independent state for the Sindh province. The movement was the brainchild of G M Syed, a Sindhi nationalist, and retains pockets of support among the Sindhi diaspora in India and the world.

The long latent movement was rekindled after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in 2007. The Sindhudesh movement has mostly been peaceful under the auspices of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz or JSQM, which has asked its supporters to follow ahimsa.

But of late, Sindh has witnessed the rise of more militant organisations such as the Sindhudesh Liberation Army, which have taken to targeting Chinese nationals working on CPEC projects in Sindh, as a means of getting their voice heard.