SSP Malir Rao Anwar on Friday arrested Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan.
Anwar arrested the Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly following a raid at his house in Karachi’s Buffer Zone. Farooq Sattar accompanied Hasan but was not arrested. Condemning Hasan’s arrest, Sattar while speaking to the media said, “The Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly has been arrested without a warrant.”
“I asked Rao Anwar multiple times for a warrant and reason for the arrest but he did no present either,” Sattar added. Expressing anger on the arrest, Sattar said Hasan’s arrest was ‘unjustified and unlawful.’ “Police officials arrested the MQM leader and took him away after unlawfully entering his house without female police searchers.”
Sattar went on to add that police carried out the raid on the pretext that those responsible for May 12 mayhem were hiding there, but they could not recover anyone from there.
Terming the arrests in the wake of May 12 an ‘obsession,’ Sattar said, “Nobody is talking about our 64 workers who were killed in extrajudicial killings, nobody is talking about our missing workers.” “We need a clarification on why this raid was carried out and on whose orders, Sattar said before adding that MQM was ready for mass arrests of its workers if such raids were to continue in future.”
The MQM leader demanded the prime minister, Sindh chief minister, army chief, corps commander Karachi to reveal why these arrests were being conducted and if this was “part of a well thought out agenda.”
Following Hasan’s arrest, several MQM workers gathered outside his house and chanted slogans in favour of the MQM. Earlier today, SSP Malir Rao Anwar conducted a raid at the MQM leader’s house on a tip off that people responsible for the May 12 mayhem had taken refuge there. However, the MQM leader was not present at his house at the time of the raid.
Earlier, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has summoned a report from IG Sindh regarding the raid. Shah has also called for the immediate suspension of SHO Sohrab Goth for conducting the raid.
More than 40 people were killed in a series of violent clashes between rival political parties in Karachi as they engaged in an ensuing gunfight following MQM’s blockade of then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry arrival in the metropolis.
Police have been taking action against MQM leaders after party workers attacked media houses last month. Activists of the MQM ransacked a private television station before clashing with police, leaving at least one person dead and over half a dozen injured.
The rioting drew widespread condemnation from all political parties and prompted action by the paramilitary Rangers. At least nine MQM leaders, including Dr Farooq Sattar, were detained while the party’s headquarters, Nine Zero, were also searched and subsequently sealed.
Soon after, MQM leaders including Farooq Sattar, Nasreen Jalil, Khawaja Izharul Hassan and Amir Liaquat Hussain ‘broke off’ with Altaf Hussain. “What was said against the state, the slogans chanted [against Pakistan] were never a part of MQM’s policy from day one,” Dr Farooq Sattar told a news conference at the Karachi Press Club.
Sattar accused Altaf of repeatedly embarrassing the party. “We have decided to address his mental tension, or illness, or whatever condition he is suffering from,” he said.
“The MQM cannot afford to suffer this damage time and time again,” he said, explaining what he claimed was a party decision to take control away from Altaf. “It is MQM Pakistan, so it should be operated from Pakistan,” he added. “This message is for there (London) and it is for here.”
