Three-day 'Sufi Melo' gets under way in Hyderabad.

HYDERABAD -- Speakers at a session on Sufism on the first day of the three-day 'Sufi Melo (festival) at Sindh Museum on Friday advised world powers to adopt Sindh's human-friendly approach if they were serious in establishing peace, and asserted that every kind of philosophy and ideology was acceptable to Sindh except that of war and weapons.

Writer Madad Ali Sindhi said during a debate on Adam bardahst ain un jo hal (intolerance and its solution) that mysticism could only be understood in its historical perspective.

Sindh, which was a citadel of peace before the partition and Karachi which was considered to be Paris of the region, saw its first riots after 1977 when attempts were made to promote fascism in the province, he said.

He said that there were many challenges at that time including intolerance, extremism and terrorism which needed to be countered through sustained struggle. It was Sindh's struggle that led to the abolition of One Unit and it was such a repressive period that one could not dare utter the name of Sindh without facing its consequences, he said.

Scholars, literati speak against war and bloodshed, advocate Sindh's human-friendly approach

He said that no weapons were found in 5,000-year-old history of Sindh and despite that the region was prosperous. Peoples' rights were usurped in the name of religion but people of Sindh always took the path of peace, harmony and welfare of fellow human beings, which were hallmarks of mystic behaviour, he said.

Sindh secretary of culture Munawar Mahesar, who inaugurated the Melo in the absence of Sindh Minister for Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah, urged people to forgive others and do away with their own anguish. Many countries had played a role...