Change Of Wind In Pakistan’s Sindh By NC Bipindra-FINS INDIA

With continued marginalization at the hands of the Pakistani establishment, Syed, for the 

first time, called for the independence of Sindh and the establishment of ethnic Sindhudesh in 

1972. These calls for freedom were also influenced by the dismemberment of Pakistan through the 

creation of Bangladesh a year ago in 1971 on ethnolinguistic differentiation.

Syed, in his 1974 book “A Nation in Chains: Sindhudesh,” which provides a blueprint and his 

conception of Sindhudesh, asserted that Sindh cherished a distinct language and culture, being 

home to Indus Valley Civilisation, and a 5,000-year-old history “which any nation and any country 

in the world would feel the greatest of pride to own and cherish.”

Apart from Syed, the other two most influential leaders shaping the Sindhi nationalist 

consciousness included Ibrahim Joyo and Shaikh Ayaz, jointly referred to as the “Sufi saints of 

Sindhi nationalism.”

Syed, who endured nearly 30 years of incarceration for Sindhi nationalist politics, further 

gave an organizational shape to the movement by establishing Jeay Sindh Mahaz in 1972, which 

riled the Pakistani state with its open calls for the liberation of Sindh and the establishment of 

Sindudesh.

Given the high-handed approach of the Pakistani Army, the movement gradually 

descended into an armed struggle where several outfits have taken up the cause of the Sindhudesh 

establishment. Some of the prominent resistance groups include the Sindhudesh Liberation Army 

(SLA), Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), Jeay Sindh Students’ 

Federation (JSSF), among others.

The Pakistani state has continued to adopt systemically discriminatory policies vis-à-vis 

Sindh over the years, using high-handed measures against the Sindhi nationalists along with the 

enforced disappearance of hundreds of civilians by the state security services.

These discriminatory policies have led to a growing alienation among Sindhis and hence 

given impetus to the nationalist struggle that the Pakistani government had claimed to subdue 

earlier through widespread suppressive measures from the 1970s onwards.

A prominent Sindhi advocacy group, Worldwide Sindhi Congress, accuses the Pakistan 

Army of “the practice of enforced disappearance” under which “hundreds and thousands of 

Sindhis, political workers, human rights activists have disappeared” over the years.

On record, the Government of Pakistan in 2021 asserted that it gave closure to nearly 5000 

cases of enforced disappearances, even as over 2000 remain unresolved. However, these claims 

have been disputed by the rights groups, accusing the government of deflating the actual numbers.

The situation has been further aggravated by the fact that hundreds of unidentified bodies 

have sprung up over the years across the length and breadth of the province, pointing to the 

practice of extrajudicial killings at the hands of the state, as claimed by many rights groups.

A US Department of State report for 2022 has also highlighted that the Sindhi nationalists 

have been subjected to enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings, with dozens of bulletriddled and mutilated bodies recovered across the province.

A September 2023 report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan denounced the 

Pakistani government “over the human rights situation in northern Sindh, including rights 

violations against vulnerable groups, precarious law and order, poor access to education and 

healthcare, and other curbs on fundamental freedoms.”