Anti-China protests have been taking place across Sindh against the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which passes through the province.
Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), a Sindh-based nationalist party, has been opposing the CPEC and led a massive rally-cum-march from the Indus Highway to the tomb of Saint G M Sayed, the 20th century Sindhi scholar and politician who laid the foundation of Sindhudesh movement.
The protesters were carrying anti-CPEC, anti-extremist and religious terrorism banners and placards, which demanded the independence of Sindh.
JSMM leaders and activists placed floral wreaths at the tomb of Sayed and the tombs of the martyrs of Sindhudesh movement and recited the national anthem of Sindhudesh as a salutation on the eve of 113th birthday of Late Sindhi leader.
Chairman of JSMM, Shafi Burfat, also addressed the gathering via video link and said "Sindh has always been an independent country and nation since ages".
Speaking on the current political situation, he declared that the CPEC to be the death warrant for the cultural, economic, geographic existence of Sindhi and Baloch nations, deeming it a "Punjabi conspiracy to strengthen its imperialist expansionist hegemony over Sindh and Balochistan."
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Burfat also termed the CPEC as a "trigger of international conflicts and nuclear arms race in the region and strategic military design of Chinese aggression over the Indian ocean."
The Sindhi leader demanded international community and United Nations to take an immediate notice of Pakistani state's brutality and atrocities against the Sindhi and Baloch political activists, condemning the enforced disappearances of septuagenarian JSMM leader Ustad Muhammad Rahimon and others.
In a statement, Burfat announced a Sindh wide strike on February 20th to protest the CPEC and appealed Sindhi nation, trade unionists, lawyers, journalists, students and every Sindhi to cooperate and participate in the strike to send the civilized international community and Chinese imperialists a clear message that Sindh will never accept CPEC and slavery of Punjab.