HRCP concerned over FIR lodged against students protesting canals project

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Friday expressed its concern over the FIR registered by Jamshoro police against nearly 100 Sindh University (SU) students allegedly involved in a clash with cops on Tuesday.

On March 4, the Jamshoro police baton-charged and lobbed teargas shells to disperse students protesting against Cholistan canal and other water channels being created to irrigation millions of acres of Panjab lands with Indus water.

The FIR was registered on Wednesday against the students, 37 of whom are activists of student wings of different nationalist groups.

Many of the booked suspects were rounded up soon after a complaint against them was lodged by Superintendent Saleem Panhwar following the clash.

However, they were set free after negotiations between Jamshoro SSP Zafar Siddique and some senior leaders of the political and nationalist parties that participated in a March 4 event at the university on the controversial canals issue.

On Friday, the HRCP expressed its concern over the FIR and “deplore[d] the use of disproportionate force” against the protesters, after the police attempted to prevent them from gathering on the Indus Highway.

“We remind the Sindh government that under international best practices, nonviolent assemblies that obstruct public roads should not be dispersed with force solely on the basis of the disruption they cause,” the human rights organisation said

“The FIR must be withdrawn and those still in custody released.”

Violence on March 4

The March 4 event at the SU was organised by certain nationalist parties, including Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) and its student wing, to pay tribute to those Sindhi students who had participated in the movement launched on March 4, 1967 against ‘One Unit’.

The event featured a march from the SU campus to the nearby section of the Indus Highway. However, strong contingents of police deployed along the route of the march tried to stop several hundred male and female students, as well as activists of the participating nationalist parties, from heading towards the highway.

This led to a clash between the two sides and police had to lob teargas shells and apply baton charge to disperse the marchers. The participants reacted to the police action by pelting police and their mobile vans with stones, causing injuries to some policemen and damage to at least two police vehicles.

Controversial canals

The speeches made at the event focused on the federal government’s controversial six-canal plan, corporate farming and other projects being regarded as detrimental to Sindh’s vital interests.

According to the FIR, the students participating in the rally illegally blocked the Indus Highway and caused disruption in the flow of vehicular traffic. When police arrived at the scene to restore order, they were attacked by the marchers, it claimed, adding that two policemen, constables Farhan Loond and Sadaqat Ali, suffered injuries from the stones thrown at them.

The constables were admitted to the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) for treatment. Two police vehicles were damaged during the incident, it added.

It said that despite making attempts, the police could not arrest more than 10 students due to the presence of a large number of protesters. The traffic movement was, however, restored eventually after the crowd dispersed, it said.

Meanwhile, Zubair Hussain Panhwar, Zahid Keerio and other student leaders have condemned the registration of the FIR, desciribing it as a false and politically motivated case. They vowed to continue their struggle against the six canals.

Sindh United Party (SUP) President Syed Zain Shah, in his press statement, has demanded that the FIR should be quashed.

Instead, he added that action should be taken against those police officers and personnel, including the SSP, DSP and SHO of Jamshoro, who were involved in resorting to baton-charge and lobbing teargas shells to disperse the peaceful protesters.

He warned of a severe public reaction if the demands were not met.