Pakistan: JSM blocks national highways against proposed construction of six new canals on Indus River – The Tribune

Sindh [Pakistan], April 5 (ANI): Amid protests against the proposed construction of six new canals on the Indus River in Sindh, the Jeay Sindh Mahaz (JSM) blocked the Indus and National highways at three different locations on Friday, The Express Tribune reported.

The JSM Chairman Riaz Ali Chandio, who led a protest rally on the National Highway in Moro, Naushehro Feroze district, said they carefully selected April 4 to hold a protest to neutralise the propaganda being spread by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

He said, “Unless the government issues the notification of cancelling all these controversial projects, the protests would continue.”

Riaz Ali Chandio said that the Green Pakistan Initiative, new canals and corporate farming are aimed to rob Sindh of its water and land. He called it “economic murder of the entire population of Sindh which is dependent on agriculture.

He accused the PPP of organising cosmetic protests in the province, although it has given its approval for the construction of new canals.

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) leader Niaz Kalani condemned the enforced disappearances and nominations of people in flimsy FIRs who participated in peaceful protests. He asserted that the protests are becoming stronger with each passing day despite all the pressure tactics being used by the government.

Meanwhile, Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party Chairman Qadir Magsi said that his party will begin sit-in protests on the highways in the province on April 10. He said that sit-ins would be organised in different locations each day on the highways, The Express Tribune reported.

Magsi said, “The ongoing protests against the canals and the corporate farming have turned into a movement which won’t stop.”

Meanwhile, on Friday, a bride made it mandatory for the groom to affix banners rejecting canals at their wedding function in a village in the Shahpur Jahania area of the Noushehro Feroze district. The couple who got married on Friday belong to the Unar community, The Express Tribune reported.

The couple not only put banners on walls of the wedding hall, but the place also reverberated with songs and slogans of nationalists and disapproval for the canals. Rallies and demonstrations were held in dozens of other places in many districts of the province. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)