A large number of fisher folk, boat owners and community elders took to the streets in the largest fishermen locality of Ibrahim Hyderi to protest against the cruelty of coast guards deployed along the routes of fishing boats.
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Chairman Mohammed Ali Shah, Majid Motani, former Bin Qasim Town nazim Jan Alam Jamot, Yousuf Kadani, Haji Sadiq, Ramzan Sholani, Adam Kutchhi and other community elders led the rally against state-sponsored terrorism against the fisher folk community.
Shah appealed to all boat owners and crewmembers to stop working their boats until their demands are met. We shall block ship channels for Port Qasim and Karachi Port in protest if the government authorities fail to pay heed to our demands.
He said they had support of hundreds of thousands of community people engaged in fishing in marine and inland waters. He asked the entire coastal community to come together and show unity against state barbarism.
He announced launching a campaign against the coast guards. He said the PFF had hundreds of people in the inland waters across the country who would join the campaign.He asked the government to intervene and repeal the decision of deploying coast guards so that fishing vessels could traverse the sea without fear.
Condemning the attitude of the coast guards, Jamot said the government agency treated the fisher folk as thieves and terrorists, adding that the coastal community would continue protesting.
He asked the government to stop the coastal agency from violating the law and to assure the fisher folk would be treated as law-abiding citizens. These are traditional routes of fishing vessels and nobody has the right to stop them in the name of checking and wasting their time. This kind of hindrance affects their work.
He claimed that the coast guards had forced boat owners to sign blank papers at gunpoint with the threat that if they used the same routes again, they would be deprived of their vessels with their catch and fishing tools.
The News International