A political assassination came in an unbearable climate of constant persecution.
by Marco Respinti
On the morning of February 16, 2024, Hidayatullah Lohar (commonly referred to as Hidayat Lohar) was assassinated in Nasirabad (also spelled Naseerabad), his hometown in the Larkana District of the Sindh Province, Pakistan. He was shot dead by an unidentified gunman assailing him, part of a group of at least two motorcyclists, while on his way to reach the local school, Golu Gawans, where he taught.
Lohar was a prominent Sindhi activist, and an advocate of religious liberty and human rights for the Sindhis. He was well-known for his courageous campaigns on behalf of all the persecuted. The World Sindhi Congress (WSC) is persuaded of the political nature of the murder—and it is not alone. Some sources openly accuse the Pakistani armed forces and one of the daughters of Lohar, Sassui, was caught on camera beside her deceased father stating that he had been killed by government agencies.
The murder comes atop a long story of persecution suffered by Lohar for his activism. For over two years, from April 17, 2017, to May 28, 2019, he was kidnapped and “disappeared” due to his activism on behalf of the basic liberties of the people of Sindh, a province that is often at the center of international attention for the abuses that fanatic mobs commit against religious and ethnic minorities. Once liberated, Lohar reported he had been severely tortured; medical complications and signs on his body confirmed it.
During the abduction, the torch of his abnegation and dedication was picked up by his two daughters, Sorath and Sassui, who took the leadership of the Voice for Missing Persons of Sindh (VMPS), an NGO specializing in advocacy for the people who “vanish” in Sindh that their father had established. Today, VMPS it is one of the most active and vocal organizations in the area in spite of many threats and difficulties.
Disappearances are in fact a serious problem in Sindh Province, also numerically. This is testified by the fact that the response to Lohar and his daughters’ given by those who are responsible of these crimes didn’t come late. Lothar was kidnapped a second time in 2023, to be released only after the strong pressure exerted by civil society. His daughter Sassui accused the authorities. Often it is the Pakistan’s Counter Terrorism Department, which represses any “separatist” activity in the country, that is accused by activists to be behind the abductions.
In Sindh Province, human rights activists strongly challenge local authorities, accusing them of being involved in the disappearances. Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) an NGO based in The Hague, The Netherlands, states that “Pakistan’s state agencies are responsible for the unabated enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings with impunity of those who raise voice for their political, democratic and human rights.” Amnesty International has proven to be on the same line.
In a message delivered to “Bitter Winter” for the general public and the concerned people to know and hear, GHRD now requests “the International Community, the UN, the EU, the human rights institutions and organizations to help us out of these fateful and grievous situations.”
It asks “to press for a UN investigation into the extrajudicial murder of Hidayat Lohar and bring the perpetrators to justice; press up on Pakistan to stop the enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of Sindhi, Baloch and Pashtoon people; stop all aid and support to Pakistan until the compliance of the International human rights obligations; and send a fact-finding mission to Pakistan to assess the situation regarding enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Pakistan.”
Marco Respinti is an Italian professional journalist, member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), author, translator, and lecturer. He has contributed and contributes to several journals and magazines both in print and online, both in Italy and abroad. Author of books and chapter in books, he has translated and/or edited works by, among others, Edmund Burke, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Russell Kirk, J.R.R. Tolkien, Régine Pernoud and Gustave Thibon. A Senior fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal (a non-partisan, non-profit U.S. educational organization based in Mecosta, Michigan), he is also a founding member as well as a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for European Renewal (a non-profit, non-partisan pan-European educational organization based in The Hague, The Netherlands). A member of the Advisory Council of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief, in December 2022, the Universal Peace Federation bestowed on him, among others, the title of Ambassador of Peace. From February 2018 to December 2022, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of International Family News. He serves as Director-in-Charge of the academic publication The Journal of CESNUR and Bitter Winter: A Magazine on Religious Liberty and Human Rights.
