By the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign
In the late hours of Monday night, February 13th, Comrade Rauf Khan Lund was arrested by the Counter Terrorism Department in a special raid at Tibbi Lundan, a small town in District D.G. Khan where he belongs to and where he is a household name as a revolutionary voice against the capitalism and feudalism.
He was kept in illegal custody for the almost the whole next day. His captivity with police was not shown on the record as no police station was willing to register an arrest of a popular mass leader with a thoroughly clean record. Later on, a case was registered against him, only at about 8 pm at Hajipur police station next day, with a heavy-handed intervention of higher authorities and disregarding all laws, constitutional rules, regulations and rights.
He has been charged with possessing heavy, illegal arms such as rocket launchers and hand grenades. The charges against him are totally false, as even a child from the region can tell. He is currently being kept at Central Jail Rajanpur on a judicial remand.
As explained above Comrade Rauf Lund, a Marxist intellectual and a lawyer by profession, is a popular mass leader of Saraiki Wasaib (South Punjab), with a long history of struggle against capitalists and powerful local feudals, for the rights of workers and peasants. He is an internationalist to the core of his heart and has raised his voice against each and every act of injustice and class exploitation all over the world.
An honest and principled peasant leader in the region
He is a central figure of the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC), and a veteran political worker and leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, in which he firmly stands on the founding socialist principles of the party. He is also widely considered as honest and principled peasant leader in the region, fighting for revolutionary land reforms and an end to landlordism and exploitation of landless peasants.
In a statement from police custody Comrade Rauf has said to the comrades, “yes I admit I possess heavy weapons, and these weapons are my words, my books, my pen and the ideas of revolutionary Marxism that I adhere to!”
A wave of grief and anger has swept throughout the progressive circles of the country after his arrest. Dozens of regional Bar Councils all across the country have recorded their protest by press releases and many of them have gone on strike as a show of solidarity with Comrade Rauf Lund. There is also a trend of solidarity and protest emerging on social media with countless people participating by sharing his pictures, slides and relevant hashtags from all over the world.
The PTUDC has also strongly condemned the heinous act by the state authorities and deemed it an oppressive manoeuvre in order to silence the voice of the oppressed and the poor. The PTUDC, along with the Revolutionary Students Fronts (RSF) and the Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF) and many progressive students, labour and peasant organizations have also issued a call for countrywide protests in this regard, which have already started.
Socialists should demand an immediate revocation of the false and baseless case against Comrade Rauf Lund and his release without any further delay. An international campaign of protest against Pakistani authorities and solidarity with Comrade Rauf Lund will be initiated shortly if our principled demands are not met. We ensure the comrades and family of comrade Rauf that they won’t find themselves alone in these testing times and we won’t be at peace until and unless our comrade is released with full respect and dignity.
Based on an article in the Asian Marxist Review, the original here.
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