Pakistan Dawn
Indus River Day: thousands throng dry riverbed Dawn Report Monday, 25 Jan, 2010
HYDERABAD: Thousands of people thronged the dry bed of the once mighty Indus at different places along its route in the province on Sunday to mark the Indus River Day.
A local media organisation had given the call for the day and various sections of society responded with enthusiasm and thronged banks of the river.
A large number of women and children who threw rose petals offered prayers and sang national songs to highlight the plight of the river, which has been sustaining life in the province for centuries.
Wearing Sindhi caps and ajraks, people kept aside their political affiliations and ideologies and gathered at Hussainabad, under the Hyderabad bypass and downstream Kotri at Al Manzar to express their love for the river and reiterate their stand on the water issue.
Activists of different political and nationalist parties raised slogans of love for the river. Some of them fired shots in air.
Mr Ali Qazi who heads the media organisation which called for observing the day, threw rose petals in the river at Dadu-Moro bridge and laid a floral wreath at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.
People started assembling at the riverbed at about 10 am and remained there till evening when prayers were offered for restoration of the river’s old glory.
People from Tharparkar belonging to the Bheel, Kohli and Thakur communities also offered prayers according to their traditions and danced to the tune of national and Sindhi songs.
Singers, including Ahmed Mughal, Zamin Ali, Taj Mastani, Sadiq Faqir, Kareem Faqir, Najaf Faqir, Sanam Marvi, Zulfiqar Ali and Mazhar Hussain entertained people from a stage set up by the Sindh Department of CUlture.
Sindh Rural Development Minister Zubair Ahmed Khan heading a delegation of the MQM and PPP Sindh general Secretary Taj Hyder and ministers Zahid Bhurgari and Dr. Mohan Lal Kohsitani visited the riverbed.
Chairman of Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party Dr. Qadir Magsi, president of Awami Tehrik Ayaz Latif Palijo, senior vice-chairman JSQM Dr. Niaz Kalani, Qamar Bhatti of Jeay Sindh Qaum Parast Party, Dr. Dodo Maheri of Sindh United Party and Abrar Kazi also visited the riverbed.
Several organisations had set up camps and stalls and some of them distributed free food.
Ghulam Murtaza Khaskheli and Rajab Ali presented Sufi poetry at Al-Manzar. Sindh Sughar Sangat and Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum organised rallies.
In Thatta, activists of social and political organisations and civil society sat in the dry riverbed and held a demonstration on Doolha Darya Khan bridge to express concern over shortage of water in the river.
Large groups of people holding flags and banners of different parties marched to the river on foot and many other in motorcade. They were led by their leaders, JSQM chairman Bashir Khan Qureshi, JSM chairman Riaz Chandio, Culture Minister Sassui Palijo, MPA Humera Alwani, MNA Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro, MNA Syed Ayaz Shah Shirazi and MPA Heer Soho.Several NGOs and welafare organisations also held rallies which were attended by writers, intellectuals, fishermen and common people.
In Naushahro Feroze and Sukkur, thousands of people gathered at the riverbed at different places and offered prayers for restoration of the old glory of Indus.
>From Mirpurkhas, people in a motorcade led by PPP MPA Shamim Ara
Panhwar and secretary of PPP Mirpurkhas Tharo Khan Panhwar went to
Jamshoro to express love and respect for river.
Mirpurkhas zone of MQM took out a procession to mark the day. People in the procession gathered at the West Jamrao canal where they offered prayers for the Indus and Sindh.
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges