Dalits face threats in Tharparkar
Staff Report

SUKKUR: The Scheduled Castes Federation of Pakistan (SCFP) has expressed concern, saying the so-called ‘upper caste candidates’ were threatening the Dalit voters and their allies in the sensitive border district of Tharparker.

In a press statement issued here on Tuesday, the SCFP President Surendar Valasai and Deputy Secretary General Arjundas advocate, said the scheduled caste candidates were being intimidated for supporting right of self-determination to Kashmiris, and demanding an end to hegemony of small number of upper caste Hindus in Pakistani minority politics.

They said SCFP held a demonstration against the killings of Muslims, Dalits and Christians in India on May 19, in front of Karachi Press Club. “Since then the upper caste Hindus led by Rana Chandar Singh and his political allies have stepped up intimidation of scheduled castes in Tharparker and other parts of Sindh,” the statement said.

The SCFP leaders said at least two scheduled castes youths had been murdered in Diplo and Nagarparker districts at the hands of Thakurs, but the administration had done nothing about it.

They appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take notice of murder threats against several scheduled caste youths in Tharparker by the ‘RSS gangsters’.

They said they had opted for Pakistan to seek protection under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah as the Brahmin and Thakur duo had cut them down to the status of animals.

The SCFP urged the government to prevent lawlessness in Tharparker, being created by ‘moles of Bal Thackery and the RSS’. They demanded that Pakistan Army be deployed in the region to create a sense of security among the scheduled castes, who were going to vote against the upper caste candidates and their allies for the first time in the history of Indo-Pak Sub-continent.

Daily Times, Thursday, November 27, 2003