Thread by @AuratMarchKHI

Enforced disappearances: Since 2017, we have heard gruesome stories and seen heartbreaking protests by families of missing persons in multiple cities in Sindh. Sindhi women, the kin of most of these missing.. #AuratMarch #StopEnforcedDisappearances #AtoZofPatriarchalViolence

persons have been at the forefront of the protest movement with regular sit-ins in Larkana, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Mirpurkhas, Ghotki, Badin, & Kandhkot districts. The press clubs have turned into another unfortunate home for these protestors as they stay there...

sometimes on hunger strikes, & demand the return of their loved ones along with the due legal process to be followed for their cases. These women have not only raised voices for their own but have also invited & provided a platform to the Shia, Baloch and Urdu-speaking Sindhi..

missing persons’ families.

Despite facing harassment & constant surveillance, these women have continued the struggle for return of those missing. They have braved attempts to silence them, including baton charges and tear gas charges.

The images of these women resisting police action, and looking into eyes of agents of the state, have defined this struggle and the courage that follows loss of your loved ones. Earlier this year, activists from Sindh Sabha, a rights group that included women and children..

had started a long march on foot from Karachi to Rawalpindi but on reaching outskirts of Punjab, were denied entry, arrested & physically manhandled. This denial of freedom to peacefully protest, freedom to move across the country, and undue detention forced them to return to..

Hyderabad after their release. But they continued with the sit-ins, refusing to give up.

Although many of Sindhi missing persons are political activists, several are teachers, students, human rights activists or government officials. Alarmingly, those who disappeared..

include children of political activists. Like the others, these children have also been taken away during raids and held without charge, while their families remain clueless about their whereabouts.

We demand that the authorities return all the missing persons and..

fulfill the promise of criminalizing enforced disappearance in consultation with civil society and victims’ families. The government should also ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and stop harassment and..

intimidation of activists demanding return of missing persons. We also express solidarity with these women for their unflinching resolve, and the struggle that a state behaving like a patriarchal institution finds hard to dismantle.