Disregarding the Sindh government’s appeal to call off the wheel-jam strike, the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) has decided to go ahead with its protest on Saturday (today).
A delegation of the Sindhi separatists group met Home Minister Manzoor Wasan at his office on Friday, in which a formal letter was forwarded to the government for a high-level investigation into the mysterious death of JSQM leader Bashir Khan Qureshi.
During the meeting, Wasan requested the JSQM leadership to cancel its strike; however, the home minister’s request was declined, saying that the protest is not against the Pakistan People’s Party-led government.
JSQM, the delegation said, is staging a demonstration against the laxity and delay tactics of the authorities in finding the real cause of Qureshi’s death.
The delegation also rejected the analysis of Qureshi’s post-mortem report by a committee of the Health Department.
JSQM Senior Vice Chairman Dr Niaz Kalani said that the strike is going to be observed against the non-seriousness of the authorities in investigating Qureshi’s mysterious death.
“We have forwarded a written application asking for engagement of international doctors who could unearth Qureshi’s cause of death,” Kalani added.
He said that the Health Department’s committee had admitted that the volume of organophosphate in Qureshi’s organs could not be checked due to unavailability of state-of-the-art equipment.
“JSQM and Qureshi’s family have rejected the report of the Health Department’s committee and have also termed it ‘doubtful’,” he added.
