Civil Society Coalition Celebrates Saint Valentines’ Day as Peace Day in Mirpurkhas

Report by Hammed Channa

Coalition of three organizations celebrated ‘Amun Deeharo’ or Peace Day on Saint Valentines’ Day. The Coalition works on different social issues and focused on peace, harmony, empowerment of women, labor rights. The Coalition covers the area of Mirpurkhas but is well connected with other national and international organizations support their work.

Amun (Peace) Rally Mirpurkhas

The purpose of celebration of Valentine’s Day was to reject the extremism and get the message of Mystic poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai across the world. All participants of the rally were wearing yellow color scarves, bands and dresses. Peace rally started from station chowk at 11 am and reached at market chowk by passing through the post office. Number of people in the rally significantly increased when it reached to the market where a person from different walks of lives streamed into the rally as a sign of solidarity.

Sundar one of the participants, sang peace song ‘Amun Zindabad (Live Long Peace) in his melodious voice and got lot of applause from the participants of the rally as well as shopkeepers and by standards. One interesting aspect of the rally which can also be seen in the pictures is active participation of women.  

Women Dancing for peace

Mr. Hameed channa, Miss Nusrat miano, Zeeshan laghari, Taj baloch, Wajid laghari and others addressed the rally. Afterwards, the rally turned to the press club where participants chanted loud slogans, “BUNIAD PARSTI MURDABAD, AMUN ZINDABAD “ (Peace-Live Long- Death to extremism).At the press, Coalition organized the cultural show where Abdul Qadir Mithu and other folk artists showed a great performance and spread the message of peace and harmony. Followed by the cultural dance by Suljhial Sartian Sath one of the organizations in the collation, led by a women activist, to relay the message of peace.  

One of the organizer addressing the rally

One should not forget the Sindh is a province of Pakistan where massive floods in 2010 destroyed infrastructure, crops, caused death and displacement but have not shaken people’s will and determination, who still celebrate peace and harmony day and live with hope for the best. This and other such kind of celebration by the people of Pakistan and Sindh have lot to tell both the world and international community that Pakistanis are peace lovers, not extremists.