Remembering a warrior

Karachi
Several progressive political activists gathered near the Old Thana neighbourhood of Malir on Sunday to commemorate the fifth death anniversary of renowned Baloch progressive leader, Lala Lal Bakhsh Rind.
Rind, affectionately called ‘Lala’ by fellow comrades, had passed away on August 16, 2010 at the age of 78 following a protracted illness.
A die-hard Marxist, he was one of the founding members of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) and a close aide of leading Baloch nationalists including Mir Ghous Baksh Bizenjo, Mir Gul Khan Naseer, Sardar Ataullah Mengal, Khair Baksh Marri, Khan Abdul Wali Khan and Bengal’s revolutionary figurehead Maulana Bhashani.
Participants in the gathering, presided over by veteran Baloch leader Nasir Baloch and organised by the Awami National Party (AWP), remembered Rind for his strong-willed determination which resulted in him devoting his entire life for the struggle for the rights of the oppressed classes.
Senior member of the AWP, Yousuf Masti Khan, reminiscing Rind’s political activism said it had gotten extremely difficult for progressive political activists today, from Sindh to Balohcistan, to struggle for fundamental human rights as opportunist political leaders had reduced politics to minting money through illicit means than raising voices for peoples’ rights. “It is today that we need activists like Rind in contemporary politics,” Khan said.
Renowned Sindhi nationalist leader, Abdul Khalique Junejo of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz, said Rind spent his whole life struggling for the rights of the people, to the extent that he used to attend political gathering even after he was bound to his wheelchair.
“He was not only a committed socialist but was also a social activist who co-founded a number of educational and literary institutions in the city, specially in Lyari,” he said.
Engr Hameed Baloch of the National Party, Malir-based political leader Saleem Kalmati, literary activist Azeem Dehqan, journalist Bashir Baloch and several other political activists also spoke at the event.