HYDERABAD: Jeay Sindh MahazRiaz (JSM-R) Chairman Riaz Ali Chandio has announced that he has decided to rejoin the `Save Indus Movement` now when the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has quit it. He made the announcement at a news conference in Tando Mohammad Khan on Wednesday.

He said his party had earlier quit the movement because JUI-F General Secretary Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro had taken a different stance on the Sept 19, 2024 extrajudicial killing of Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar, a social media activist accused of blasphemy.Grand Democratic Alliance Secretary General Dr Safdar Abbasi had called on Riaz Chandio in Tando Mohammad Khan. Chandio said he communicated his decision to him during the meeting.

He said that JSM-R would celebrate the 121st anniversary of G.M. Syed in Sann under the aegis of Jeay Sindh Rahbar Committee on Jan 17. Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), too, would attend the birth anniversary programme, he said.

He said that he was trying to bring together all nationalist groups and factions under one roof at one joint programme but if someone still organised separate function, then he had no objection to it.

He said that six canals being built on Indus River would destroy millions ofacres of fertile land in Sindh. The party`s future course of action with regard to the `anti-Sindh` project would be devised on Jan 17, he said.

Meanwhile, GDA Secretary General Safdar Abbasi told Dawn over phone that he had seen statement of JUI-F that the party would not join the `Bedari March` planned for January 12 by the Save Indus Movement. The march would begin from Hyderabad and end in Mirpurkhas.

Dr Safdar said that the JUI-F excused to join the march on the grounds that the GDA had not attended JUI-F`s recent multi-party conference. The GDA had conveyed to the JUI-F that it was difficult foritto attend the conferencein the presence of PPP, he said.